Crypto's long battle with SEC comes to a close with Ripple victory

The Securities and Exchange Commission's years-long crusade against the crypto industry appears to be over.
The final chapter closed on Wednesday, when Ripple announced that the SEC had officially dropped its four-year-old lawsuit against the company. The suit, filed on Jay Clayton's last day as SEC chair, accused Ripple of raising $1.3 billion through the sale of its XRP token without registering it as a security.
Crypto companies and exchanges Coinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, Binance, and OpenSea all previously saw lawsuits or investigations dropped, resolved or put on hold. Ripple is now taking a victory lap.
"Ripple stands alone as the company that fought back — and won on essential legal questions — throwing a major wrench into the SEC's plans to destroy crypto in the U.S. through enforcement," Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty told CNBC in an emailed statement. "The SEC has now abandoned its appeal in our case. In a fitting irony, Ripple was the first major case they brought and will now be the last one they walk away from."
XRP was created in 2012 as one of the first non-bitcoin cryptocurrencies. It was started by the founders of the company Ripple, and became the platform's native currency. Like bitcoin, XRP can be bought and sold by retail investors. XRP jumped about 11% after Wednesday's announcement.
Ripple spent $150 million battling the government in a bruising legal standoff with former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, whose approach to crypto was widely viewed as hostile. In July 2023, a federal judge ruled that XRP is "not necessarily a security on its face," undercutting the foundation of the SEC's case.