SEC files enforcement case against Ripple
The SEC sued Ripple Labs and executives Christian Larsen and Bradley Garlinghouse, alleging that sales of XRP constituted an unregistered securities offering.
Filed on December 22 in federal court in Manhattan, the complaint alleged that Ripple and the two executives had raised more than $1.3 billion through sales and distributions of XRP without registering the offering under federal securities law.
The case did not allege that Bitcoin was a security. That contrast was central to its relevance for a Bitcoin-centered timeline: by 2020 U.S. officials had repeatedly treated Bitcoin differently from issuer-led token offerings, while the Ripple case tested how securities law applied to a major centrally associated digital asset.
The filing was only the beginning of litigation and the allegations were not findings of liability. Its immediate market effect, however, was large enough that exchanges soon began reassessing whether to continue supporting XRP.