Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced that the lawsuit brought against the company by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will be dropped. Garlinghouse, in a statement made on his social media account, expressed that “This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. SEC will withdraw the appeal, Ripple will have a major victory in terms of cryptocurrency. The future is bright. Let’s build it.” He noted that the lawsuit filed by the SEC against Ripple over four years ago had finally come to an end, referring to it as the “first major move in the war against crypto.” Garlinghouse stated, “Back then, I believed not only that Ripple was legally right, but also that history would prove we were on the right side.” Garlinghouse alleged that when Gary Gensler was the SEC chairman, they took action against the entire industry using the same arguments as in the case against Ripple, asserting that their aim was to scare rather than protect investors. Mentioning the $15 billion loss in XRP, Garlinghouse accused the SEC of being a “market manipulator.” He said, “SEC was not seeking justice. They were trying to win the case at all costs.” In December 2020, SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple, the company behind XRP, and its executives, accusing them of conducting an unregistered security offering of $1.3 billion by selling XRP launched in 2012. Ripple argued that XRP, a token developed to facilitate cross-border payments, is not a security. In July 2023, the lawsuit brought by the SEC against the cryptocurrency XRP was resolved in favor of Ripple. Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York ruled that Ripple did not violate federal securities laws by selling the cryptocurrency XRP on exchanges. Torres later denied the SEC’s request to appeal this decision. Last year, the SEC had taken this decision to appeal.