In a harsh critique, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse publicly condemned the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The reason: On Wednesday, the SEC amended its complaint against the crypto exchange Binance, no longer classifying tokens like Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), and Polygon (MATIC) as securities. Some representatives of the crypto industry now accuse the agency, led by Gary Gensler, of inconsistency in its actions and a lack of transparency. The Ripple CEO uses particularly drastic words, calling it further evidence of the SEC’s hypocrisy. "SEC Chief Gensler claims the rules are clear, yet his agency cannot comprehend them and applies them arbitrarily, increasing confusion in the industry," he wrote in a new X post. Since 2020, there has been an ongoing legal dispute between Ripple Labs, the company behind the XRP token, and the SEC. The latter demands hefty fines amounting to almost two billion US dollars from Ripple.

Ripple continues to fight, but XRP falls

In a spectacular ruling in July 2023, Judge Torres determined that the XRP token is not a security in the context of trades by retail investors. However, the situation is different when sold to institutional investors, which is the basis of the SEC's lawsuit. The verbal attack by Ripple’s CEO might indicate that the legal dispute is far from being resolved. His accusation that the SEC has "a political agenda and/or malicious litigation tactics" is unlikely to increase the chances of a favorable outcome. Pro-XRP lawyer John Deaton, who demands the immediate resignation of SEC Chief Gary Gensler, echoes similar sentiments to Garlinghouse. However, Ripple’s combative stance has so far yielded little. In the past two days, the XRP price fell by 11.8%, now trading at 0.572 US dollars. Thus, the gains of the past few days have been erased. Apparently, many investors are disappointed that the legal battle continues.