The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dropped its longstanding case against Ripple Labs last week, at least that’s what we are led to believe.
Brad Garlinghouse, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Ripple Labs broke the news in a March 19 X post.
“This is it – the moment we’ve been waiting for. The SEC will drop its appeal – a resounding victory for Ripple, for crypto, every way you look at it.”
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A couple of days later, on March 25, the company’s chief legal officer (CLO), Stuart Alderoty, shared what he termed his ‘final’ update on the case, also through an X post.
Alderoty explained that the SEC has agreed to drop the case without conditions, while Ripple will withdraw its cross-appeal. In addition, the commission will keep $50 million of the original $125 million fine levied on the business, while the rest will be returned to Ripple Labs.
There’s just one issue — the SEC itself has remained oddly silent on the matter.
In fact, the SEC hasn’t addressed the end of the case (or confirmed it) at all, as of the time of writing on March 27. That’s beyond just slightly odd — it’s a clear sign that, at least legally speaking, the proceedings have not concluded.
At most, Ripple v. SEC case will end in 60 days, legally speaking
Is this a cause for concern? Most likely not. The likeliest and simplest explanation was shared by Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terrett, who cited “two well-placed sources”. Terrett claimed that the delay revolves around the initial district court ruling’s permanent injunction, which prevents the selling of XRP to institutional investors.
While it isn’t confirmed, the thesis makes sense, as it would be an unwise move from Ripple to not capitalize on a major legal victory that could also remove a major roadblock.
Crypto attorney Fred Rispoli outlined a timetable for the remainder of the process in a March 25 X post. The SEC Commission has, at this point, 30 or fewer days to vote on dropping the case. Once that process is done, the commission will move to file for the injunction to be lifted. Judge Torres will then have 30 days from the motion being filed to sign off on it.
With everything said and done, there is, at most, 60 days or roughly two months to go before the SEC v. Ripple case is truly over and done with in the eyes of the law.
XRP price analysis
The initial euphoria surrounding XRP following Garlinghouse’s announcement faded rather quickly. While the digital asset reached prices as high as $2.55 on March 19, just two days later, the cryptocurrency was trading at $2.38, having erased a staggering $11 billion in market capitalization in the course of the drop.
At press time on March 27, XRP was changing hands at an even lower price of $2.34, having lost 5.95% in value on the weekly chart. On a year-to-date (YTD) basis, the token has secured a 12.21% return.
As notable as the drop has been, readers should remember that XRP has added roughly $100 billion to its market cap over the past 365 days.
In addition, the asset has outperformed the wider market thus far in 2025, and analysts remain bullish. Ryan Lee, a Bitget researcher, recently outlined a case as to how a decisive breakout above $2.55 could lead to a rally to prices as high as $10 by 2030. Renowned technical analyst Gert van Lagen, having analyzed a seven-year-long chart pattern, placed an even higher price target for XRP at $38, and deemed the figure ‘conservative’.
While XRP is evidently not immune to market-wide hiccups and pullbacks, it remains one of the cryptocurrencies with the brightest prospects going ahead, and while the positive effects of the Ripple v. SEC case’s conclusion might take a while to come into play, they are inevitable at this point.
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