On 26 June 2025 the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California rejected the joint applications of the Californian crypto-project Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to settle their dispute, so the proceedings will now continue into Q3 2025 — another twist in the long-running SEC vs Ripple saga.
The Quickex editorial team looked back at how the confrontation began, why the parties have struggled to resolve it for years, and what could happen to the project’s coin, XRP, once the Ripple legal battle finally ends.
History of the fight between the SEC and Ripple
The confrontation began in the distant-by-crypto-standards year of 2020, when the SEC accused Ripple of issuing and selling unregistered securities in the form of XRP tokens, citing the Howey test as its basis. Critics point out that the test predates cryptocurrencies and therefore may be poorly suited to digital assets.
To illustrate the dispute’s duration, remember that two SEC chairmen have come and gone during it. The regulator filed its complaint as Jay Clayton’s “parting shot”, and the case then continued under his successor, Gary Gensler, who taught students blockchain courses at MIT but whose tenure ushered in unprecedented enforcement against crypto businesses — killing hopes for a quick settlement of the Ripple securities case.
Many in the community were outraged that the new chairman kept branding tokens as securities without explaining which specific attributes made them so. A telling example was his congressional testimony, where Gensler could not say whether Ethereum is a security or what would indicate a violation of U.S. law:
Key milestones of the Ripple legal battle:
- July 2023 — The court ruled that sales of XRP to retail holders were lawful, while institutional sales violated securities law.
- August 2024 — The court imposed a Ripple fine that many thought would close the matter, but no miracle followed.
- January 2025 — The Commission tried to overturn the July 2023 ruling with arguments the judge had already rejected; investors saw this as fatal over-reach and XRP rallied.
- March 2025 — The SEC dropped several claims.
- May 2025 — Ripple and the SEC decided on a final settlement proposal asking the judge to reduce the penalty and lift the securities-related injunction.
- June 2025 — The court rejected Ripple SEC deal, leaving all restrictions in place.
Political winds also shifted: the election of pro-crypto President Donald Trump, Gensler’s dismissal and the appointment of the crypto-friendly Paul Atkins as SEC chair softened the regulator’s stance — but not enough to end the SEC lawsuit Ripple.
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What happens next?
The next checkpoint is 15 August 2025 — by that date the SEC must file a status report outlining its intended next steps, while Ripple may submit its own motion. If disagreements persist, the matter could move to an appellate court.
Given Washington’s recent retreat from heavy-handed enforcement and progress toward legalising digital assets, many observers believe 2025 could finally close the chapter of XRP and SEC hostilities.
How a resolution could affect XRP
Despite years of pressure, XRP remains in the top-ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Its latest rally started in November 2024, fuelled by Trump’s victory, and lasted until January 2025, though the coin has yet to revisit its all-time high of $3.84 (4 January 2018).
A definitive end to the Ripple and SEC confrontation could provide the momentum needed for the coin to reclaim those historic heights.
Earlier, the Quickex team analysed how Bitcoin is changing the U.S. mortgage market.