The greatest and most consistent legal war of the crypto world has ended. Ripple Labs, a Fintech giant, recently closed the book about its nearly five-year battle with the US Value and Exchange Commission, ending a battle, which has become a prosecution for the future of cryptocurrency regulation in the United States.
The surprise settlement is acclaimed as a landmark victory for the crypto industry and a major blow for the controversial “regulation by enforcement” of SEC.
The “SEC announces joint stipulation to suspend appeals, resolving a civil obligation against Ripple and two of its executives,” the regulator said in A Statement On July 7th.
What was the fight about?
Ripple is a company that uses its cryptocurrency, XRP, to make international monetary transfers faster and cheaper than traditional banking systems. In 2020, the SEC sued Ripple, advocating that XRP was not registered security. In simple terms, security is an investment contract, as a stock share. If a crypto token is considered to be security, it must follow the same strict registration and dissemination rules, standard most crypto projects have not met. SEC victory could effectively outlaw XRP in the United States and set up precedent to cripple hundreds of other tokens.
On August 7, the fight officially ended. The SEC announced “joint stipulation to dismiss appeals, resolving a civil obligation against Ripple,” while Ripple agreed to drop his crossover. The final judgment of the lower court – including $ 125 million – will remain in effect, but the war is over.
While Ripple pays a penalty –$ 50 million-, the company walks away with a much more valuable prize: game-changing legal precedent. The 2023 decision of Judge Analyria Torres addressed the SEC major blow finding that Ripple’s XRP sales in public exchanges – where buyers are anonymous and do not directly treat the company – did not qualify as securities. That part of the decision remains intact.
This is a huge deal. It creates an important distinction that other crypto -projects can now be used in their own legal battles, perhaps shielding them from the claim of a SEC’s authority over the market. Choosing to settle instead of risking this decision confirmed by a higher court, the SEC showed the limits of its “regulation by enforcement” play book: its strategy to create rules through individual processes instead of issuing clear guidelines for the industry.
As Ripple’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, wrote about X, it’s “the end … and now back to business.”
Following the commission’s vote today, the SEC and Ripple formally presented directly with the second circuit to suspend their appeals.
The end … and now back to business. https://t.co/nvqthncfot
– Stuart Alderoty (@s_alderoty) 7 August 2025
What does it mean for high street
While both sides may claim partial wins, the largest winner is probably High Street, or the daily investors and developers who have been trapped in the regulatory chaos for years. The brutal legal battle forced a court to confirm that not all digital securities are automatically securities, especially when traded by the public. This provides a clearer, though still incomplete, a set of rules. For investors, it reduces the risk that their possessions could be declared illegal at night. For innovators, it provides a slightly clearer path to building compound projects in the United States, moving the industry one step closer to main legitimacy.
Our take
The SEC spent years trying to define the cryptocurrency industry through litigation. The Ripple case shows that strategy loses steam. The agency’s decision to settle down rather than risking another courthouse could encourage other cryptocurrencies to counter instead of agreeing fast agreements. This marks the beginning of a new chapter in the Crypto-Washington stand, one where legal and political pressure can eventually force long-term rethinking how the United States regulates digital securities.
