The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s dismissal of its years-long lawsuit against Ripple Labs, the developer of the XRP Ledger blockchain network, is a “victory for the industry,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said at Blockworks’ 2025 Digital Asset Summit in New York.
Earlier on March 19, Garlinghouse revealed that the SEC would dismiss its legal action against Ripple, ending four years of litigation against the blockchain developer for an alleged $1.3-billion unregistered securities offering in 2020.
“It feels like a victory for the industry and the beginning of a new chapter,” Garlinghouse said on March 19 at the Summit, which was attended by Cointelegraph.
Ripple’s CEO said the SEC is dropping its case against the blockchain developer. Source: Brad Garlinghouse
The dismissal is the latest — and arguably most significant — reversal by the SEC under US President Donald Trump.
The agency previously dropped charges against other crypto firms, including Coinbase, Kraken and Uniswap, for similar alleged securities law violations.
Under former President Joe Biden, the SEC brought upward of 100 enforcement actions against crypto firms, typically alleging failure to properly register products that former SEC Chair Gary Gensler said fell under the securities regulators’ jurisdiction.
Trump has taken a friendlier stance toward the burgeoning industry, promising to make America the “world’s crypto capital” and appointing industry-friendly leaders to key regulatory posts.
“The new chapter started with the reset at both the Congress and the executive branch […] when Trump came in and nominated Paul Atkins, Scott Bessent, [and] brought on David Sacks,” Garlinghouse said.
Trump nominated Atkins and Bessent to head the SEC and Treasury Department, respectively. Sacks is Trump’s artificial intelligence and “crypto czar,” a newly created White House advisory role.
“I really deeply believed that we were going to be on the right side of the law and on the right side of history,” Garlinghouse said of his company’s protracted legal fight with US regulators, adding that, in his view, the SEC was “just […] trying to bully” the crypto industry.
Now that regulatory headwinds have subsided, Ripple is focusing on expansion, Garlinghouse added.
“Ripple has invested over $2 billion in investments and acquisitions across the crypto landscape, and some of those have nothing to do with XRP because if crypto does well, I fundamentally believe Ripple will do well,” he said.
The Avalanche ETF filing marks another step in Grayscale’s expanding suite of crypto investment products, following XRP and DOGE filings earlier this year.
Sir Keir Starmer faces mounting pressure over the small boats crisis after protests outside asylum hotels continued over the bank holiday weekend.
A poll suggested that voters believe the prime minister is failing to grip the problem, despite his government setting out measures to speed up removals.
It comes as Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer warned that “the far right feels emboldened and validated” by other political parties.
So far this year a record 28,076 people have made the perilous journey across the English Channel in small boats, 46% more than in the same period in 2024.
Like many other European countries, immigration has increasingly become a flashpoint in recent years as the UK deals with an influx of people fleeing war-torn and poorer countries seeking a better life.
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2:57
Asylum hotel protests swell in Norwich
Official figures released earlier this month showed a total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
There were 32,059 asylum seekers in UK hotels by the end of the same month.
Protests and counterprotests at sites housing asylum seekers continued over the weekend and the government is braced for further legal fights over the use of hotels.
A YouGov poll for The Times found that 71% per cent of voters believe Sir Keir is handling the asylum hotel issue badly, including 56% of Labour supporters.
The survey of 2,153 people carried out on August 20-21 found 37% of voters viewed immigration and asylum as the most important issue facing the country, ahead of 25% who said the economy and 7% who said the health service.
Ms Denyer, who is MP for Bristol Central, condemned threats of violence in the charged atmosphere around immigration.
“The far right feels emboldened and validated by other political parties dancing to their tune.
“The abuse I’ve been sent has got noticeably worse in the last few months, escalating in some cases to violent threats, which are reported to the police.
“It doesn’t matter how much you disagree with someone, threats of violence are never, ever OK. And they won’t silence me.”
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2:25
Asylum hotels: Is the government caught in a trap?
Is it time for gunboats to help stop the people smugglers?
Curbing the power of judges in asylum cases to tackle the migrant hotel crisis is a typical Keir Starmer response to a problem.
The former director of public prosecutions would appear to see overhauling court procedures and the legal process as the answer to any tricky situation.
Yes, the proposed fast-track asylum appeals process is fine as far as it goes. But for a government confronted with a massive migrant crisis, opponents claim it’s mere tinkering.
And welcome and worthy as it is, it isn’t going to “smash the gangs”, stop the boats or act as a powerful deterrent to the people smugglers plying their trade in the Channel.