The Securities and Exchange Commission may be preparing to terminate enforcement action against Ripple Labs more than four years later.
According to the March 12 X Post from Fox Business Reporter Eleanor Terrett, the SEC lawsuit against Ripple was “on the deadline” each after filing an appeal, appeal and cross appeal in August 2024.
Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer Stuart Aldeloty told the Cointelegraph on March 11 that the SEC civil lawsuit “has gone far beyond many others dropped by regulators following the inauguration of US President Donald Trump and the departure of Speaker Gary Gensler. Since January, the SEC has announced it will not pursue enforcement lawsuits against Coinbase, Consensys, Kraken and others.
“We have a judgment and we are under appeal. It presents some additional complexities,” said Alderoti in regards to the potentially deleted case. “However, we remain optimistic about reaching a resolution with the SEC, otherwise we will proceed with the appeal.”
According to Ripple Clo, if both parties agreed to terminate the SEC case, there were several consequences. If Ripple and the SEC agree to independently drop the appeal and mutual appeal in the Second Circuit, a lower court’s $125 million ruling would be. In the event of a dispute over financial judgment, the blockchain company and the committee must go “hold hands” to request changes from the judge.
Related: Why is Ripple SEC Case still ongoing in the ocean of resolution?
Secv. Ripple’s case included one of the first important court decisions in favor of the crypto industry when Judge Analisa Torres said the XRP tokens were security only in terms of exchange program sales, rather than security based on regulatory scope. At the time of publication, we will not propose an SEC intended to drop the case to the US District Court docket for the Southern District of New York.
Changes in tone in the SEC under Trump
The SEC filed the Ripple case under former Trump Chairman Jay Clayton, but the committee tightened the number of enforcement actions in 2021 following a confirmation from Gensler.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in an interview aired in December 2024 that if the committee was led by someone other than Gensler, the company may not be involved in US politics. Under Garlinghouse, Ripple donated $45 million to the Political Action Committee’s Fairshake for the previous election cycle, and another $25 million in November 2024.
Ripple pledged $5 million in XRP to Trump’s Inaugural Fund after winning the election, with both Garlinghouse and Aldelorie attending the Washington, DC event on January 20th, and as official guests. The Chief Justice has personally donated more than $300,000 to the Financing and Political Action Committee, which supports the President of the United States.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6unogdvqwre
The correlation between Trump’s political contributions to Republicans and the decline in SEC enforcement measures has been founded by many critics pointing to a potential conflict of interest to the administration. Coinbase, another major fairshakebacker who gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, suspended its SEC civil lawsuit in February. CEO Brian Armstrong also attended the March 7th Crypto Summit at the White House and other events.
Aldeoty suggested that the SEC dropped incident “independent” political contributions and more reflects the perspective of Chairman Mark Uyeda on industry and related regulations.
At the time of publication, the US Senate had not scheduled a hearing to consider the nomination of the committee’s next committee president, Paul Atkins. Commissioner Hester Perth said in February that after the new chair is taken over, the SEC is likely to wait for a cryptographic regulation agenda to be set.
Magazine: SEC U-turn on Crypto leaves important questions unanswered
