Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson celebrates the end of the SEC’s pursuit of enforcement against Ripple.
Under President Donald Trump’s administration, things have taken a sharp turn for the crypto industry in the United States, with regulatory wins coming hard and fast.
In the latest instance, the years-long legal warfare between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Ripple appears to be at an end, at least from the perspective of the regulator pursuing enforcement. The development has sparked celebratory cheers and pats on the back among supporters, including Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson.
“A Great Victory for Crypto”
On Wednesday, March 19, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse declared the SEC case against Ripple over, disclosing that the SEC has decided to drop its appeal.
Reacting to the announcement, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson congratulated the XRP community and declared the development “a great victory for crypto.”
A great victory for Crypto and congratulations to XRP Nation. It’s time to build again https://t.co/EjBxBatFKF
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) March 19, 2025
The sentiment comes as many see the end of the Ripple case as marking the end of the SEC’s so-called war on crypto.
First filed in December 2020, the case against Ripple was the first high-profile case in the agency’s war on crypto and is now perhaps the last to be closed as the regulator amends its position on the industry under the new administration.
Over the past few weeks, the agency has walked back on over 10 major crypto enforcement cases, including Coinbase, Consensys, Kraken, OpenSea, and Uniswap.
Loose Ends
While the SEC looks set to drop its appeal against Ripple, the latter does not appear to have decided on its cross-appeal. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has suggested that the firm wants to get rid of aspects of the previous ruling in the case.
While the court had found that Ripple’s secondary market XRP sales did not qualify as security offerings, it faulted its XRP sales to institutional investors. As such, in August 2024, Ripple was ordered to pay $125 million in fines and saddled with an injunction against direct XRP sales to institutions without SEC exemption.
According to Garlinghouse, this required “clean up.”
