Ripple celebrates dismissed charges, calling it a 'surrender by the SEC'

Ripple Labs Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty celebrated the dismissal of all charges against its executives in an ongoing lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"The SEC made a serious mistake going after Brad & Chris personally – and now, they’ve capitulated, dismissing all charges against our executives," he wrote on X.  "This is not a settlement. This is a surrender by the SEC."

The SEC said it would dismiss its lawsuit against Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen over whether they are liable in their involvement in illegal securities sales. XRP rose on the news, climbing 3.7% to $0.51, according to CoinGecko.

"The SEC and Ripple intend to meet and confer on a potential briefing schedule with respect to the pending issue in the case — what remedies are proper against Ripple for its Section 5 violations with respect to its Institutional Sales of XRP — and respectfully request until November 9, 2023 to propose such schedule to the Court or, if the parties cannot agree, to seek a briefing schedule from the Court on a contested basis," the SEC said in a filing on Thursday.

The SEC declined to comment. 

Ripple suit

The SEC and Ripple have been embroiled in a lawsuit since 2020 when the agency accused Ripple of illegally raising $1.3 billion through the sale of XRP.

New York District Court Judge Analisa Torres ruled in July that some of Ripple's sales, called programmatic, of XRP did not violate securities laws because of a blind bid process in place for them. She also ruled that other direct sales of the token to institutional investors were securities, leaving a partial win for the SEC.

Torres then later rejected the SEC's move to certify for interlocutory appeal earlier this month, noting that the agency did not demonstrate that the appeal would "materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation." 

Despite dismissing the charges against Garlinghouse and Larsen, other SEC-related charges involving the offer and sale of XRP remain on the table. 

"Today, we are legally vindicated and personally redeemed in our battle against a troubling attempt to abuse the rules in order to advance a political agenda to suffocate crypto in America. It is a travesty that we were forced to defend ourselves from an ill-advised attack that was flawed from the day it was filed," Ripple Executive Chairman Chris Larsen said in a statement.

Updated at 5:45 p.m. ET with details