- Ripple’s settlement with the SEC ends years of legal uncertainty, providing clarity on XRP’s regulatory status.
- The resolution boosts investor confidence, raising the odds of an XRP ETF approval by 2025 to 86% on prediction markets.
Ripple Labs has officially resolved its long-running legal dispute with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a development that is a game-changer for XRP and the entire cryptocurrency sector.
The company has agreed to pay a $50 million fine, much lower than the initial $125 million sought by the SEC. While Ripple did not admit to any wrongdoing as part of the settlement, the SEC will retain the settlement funds currently held in escrow.
The case, initiated in December 2020, was about whether XRP is a security or not. Earlier, a federal judge had declared that XRP sales on public exchanges were not securities offerings, but institutional sales were. The SEC has now dropped its appeal of the earlier ruling, and Ripple has dropped its appeal over institutional sales.
The settlement gave XRP much-needed regulatory clarity, which has already begun to take effect in the market. Following the news, XRP surged 13% to approximately $2.56, one of its largest price jumps in months. The resolution of this case has been considered generally as a regulatory victory for Ripple and an encouraging sign for the future of the cryptocurrency industry in the United States.
XRP ETF approval odds increase following legal resolution
Market sentiment around the launch of a spot XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) has greatly increased in the wake of the settlement. The prospects for approval of an XRP ETF on or before December 2025 rose to 86% from 77% on decentralized prediction market Polymarket, ahead of the case settlement announcement, as previously reported by ETHNews.
Analysts suggest that the legal clarity resulting from the settlement opens the door for major financial institutions such as BlackRock and Fidelity to pursue XRP ETF applications. Projections estimate that a spot ETF could drive up to $8 billion in institutional inflows in its first year, providing a notable boost to XRP’s liquidity and visibility within traditional markets.
The changing regulatory landscape is also adding to this optimism. The SEC has been relatively restrained in crypto recently, rejecting a series of high-profile suits against exchanges and suggesting potential settlements in other pending cases.
Furthermore, the appointment of Paul Atkins, a longtime crypto advocate, to potentially lead the SEC may further accelerate ETF approvals and regulatory acceptance. A spot XRP ETF would represent a major breakthrough for the asset and signal increased integration of crypto products into mainstream financial markets.