The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been on a dismissal spree in recent weeks. One by one, basically all high-profile investigations and enforcement actions started under former Chair Gary Gensler have been dismissed. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, the leader of the agency’s newly-created Crypto Task Force, has already made good on her promise earlier this month to “disentangle” the SEC from various crypto-related litigation. The agency has already dropped its cases against Coinbase, Kraken, Consensys, and OpenSea. One case, however, has remained an exception. That case, of course, is the one regarding XRP. President Trump’s recent announcement about a U.S. crypto strategic reserve , which includes Ripple’s XRP, has fueled market speculation. Some wonder whether the token’s inclusion in the reserve could lead to a swift resolution of the pending case on favorable terms. Ripple Negotiating Hard To Lift Court Injunction? Popular attorney James “MetaLawMan” Murphy speculates that the SEC’s unexplained delay in dropping the Ripple lawsuit could be because the San Francisco-based company “is negotiating hard to get the SEC to agree to vacate some or all of Judge Torres’ decision.” The SEC sued Ripple in 2020 and largely lost in 2023, when a New York judge ruled that XRP, when sold to retail investors, wasn’t a security. The case, which has cast a shadow over XRP for years, likely suppressing price and adoption, culminated in a $125 million judgment against Ripple in August of last year. Judge Analisa Torres found that Ripple’s sales of the XRP cryptocurrency to institutional investors qualified as unregistered securities transactions under federal law. Fellow attorney Jeremy Hogan agrees with Murphy’s view, commenting that the delay in dropping the appeal is likely due to the injunction in Torres’ ruling. “The court enjoined Ripple from (basically) making sales directly to customers. There are workarounds for that, but obviously Ripple would rather not have the injunction at all!” he explained. Hogan suggested that once the court issues an injunction, the involved parties can’t simply agree between them to ignore the injunction. “So, how do you dissolve an injunction? It’s not simple, which is why I think the case doesn’t resolve until April-May whereas all these other cases have already been dismissed.” XRP Case Likely To Be Resolved In May The legal expert explained that for Ripple to get the injunction dissolved, it would have to draft a carefully worded motion, which has to be signed off by the SEC. After this process, both parties have to file to dismiss their respective appeals. The judge will then rule on the motions, which is a time-consuming process. “That’s how I see it playing out and that’s why I think May is the month — although I could see the appeals being dismissed in April, prior to Ripple’s brief due date,” Hogan summarized.
