🚀 XRP Rockets 20% as Ripple CEO Declares ’Final Chapter’ in SEC Legal Battle

The crypto market erupts as Brad Garlinghouse drops the mic on Ripple's marathon SEC fight—just as Wall Street banks 'discover' blockchain (again).

### The regulatory endgame

After four years of legal trench warfare, Ripple's CEO signals surrender isn't in the SEC's vocabulary. XRP holders cheer the apparent breakthrough while compliance officers everywhere reach for antacids.

### Liquidity tsunami incoming?

Traders pile into XRP derivatives as CEX volumes spike 300%—because nothing solves regulatory uncertainty like leveraged bets. Meanwhile, the SEC's 'Howey Test' memes flood Crypto Twitter.

### The institutional wink

Goldman's crypto desk suddenly 're-evaluates' XRP custody options. Because when the sharks smell settlement blood in the water, even 'unregistered securities' get VIP treatment.

This isn't a victory lap—it's a high-stakes game of regulatory chicken where the only certainty is volatility. Buckle up.

Court Rejects Ripple-SEC Bid to Cut $125M Fine

The development comes just a day after the US district court denied a joint request from Ripple and the SEC seeking an indicative ruling to reduce Ripple’s $125 million civil penalty and reverse the order labeling Ripple’s institutional XRP sales as securities transactions.

Judge Analisa Torres wrote that Ripple’s willingness to “push the boundaries” of the prior summary judgment indicated a likelihood of further violations.

Ripple’s chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty commented on the court’s decision, saying Ripple had two options: to drop its appeal or continue challenging the finding.

He emphasized that regardless of the path chosen, “XRP’s legal status as not a security remains unchanged,” reassuring investors that Ripple’s operations WOULD proceed normally.

The SEC lawsuit, first filed in December 2020, accused Ripple Labs, Garlinghouse, and co-founder Chris Larsen of raising $1.3 billion through unregistered sales of XRP in violation of federal securities laws.

#XRPCommunity #SECGov v. #Ripple #XRP BREAKING: Judge Torres has denied the parties’ Motion for an Indicative Ruling. pic.twitter.com/9AMhGcQUsU

While the court ruled that Ripple’s programmatic sales of XRP did not constitute securities transactions, it held that Ripple’s institutional sales did.

Garlinghouse previously described Judge Torres’ August 2024 ruling imposing a $125 million penalty — significantly lower than the SEC’s initial $2 billion demand — as a “victory” for Ripple.

If the SEC follows through on dropping its appeal, the MOVE would mark the end of a four-year dispute, potentially lifting a major cloud over XRP’s future in the US market.

XRP Ledger Upgrade Adds Institutional Tokens

As reported, RippleX, the development arm of Ripple, has rolled out version 2.5.0 of the XRP Ledger, introducing several protocol upgrades aimed at strengthening network functionality and security.

RippleX engineer Mayukha Vadari has called the upgrade “possibly the best single lineup of amendments” ever released, introducing significant improvements to token management and transaction processing.

The XLS-85 amendment upgrades the escrow system by allowing third-party issued tokens, including stablecoins, and introduces multi-purpose tokens designed for institutional applications.

Another key change, XLS-56, enables wrapper transactions that can combine up to eight steps into a single action, aiming to lower failure rates in complex transaction flows and improve network efficiency for advanced use cases.

The new update comes as the XRP Ledger has recorded a surge in user activity, with the number of daily active addresses climbing from an average of 35,000 to over 295,000.