The price of the Ripple-linked XRP token jumped more than 10% Wednesday afternoon after Ripple Chief Executive Brad Garlinghouse said the Securities and Exchange Commission will withdraw its appeal of a previous ruling.
In October, the SEC appealed a court decision that Ripple’s sales of the XRP cryptocurrency over exchanges didn’t have to comply with investor-protection laws.
A Ripple spokeswoman confirmed that the SEC will drop its appeal against the company, subject to a commission vote and approval. XRP recently traded around $2.50, up 11% from its level 24 hours ago, according to CoinDesk data.
The move is the latest sign that regulators are shifting toward a softer stance on crypto enforcement under the Trump administration. An SEC spokesman declined to comment
Over the past few weeks, the SEC has dismissed cases against Coinbase Global, Kraken and Consensys, while dropping multiple investigations into crypto companies. In many such cases, the agency said it is dropping the lawsuit or investigation while a new SEC crypto task force works on developing “a comprehensive and clear regulatory framework for crypto assets.”
The price of XRP was last higher by 12% at $2.55.
. XRP was created by the founders of Ripple in 2012. It is the native token of the open source XRP Ledger, which Ripple uses in its cross-border payments business, about 95% of which takes place outside the U.S. Ripple is the largest holder of XRP coins.
The coin was the biggest beneficiary of the postelection Trump trade. It is up more than 385% since then and up 18% this year.