With the SEC dropping its four-year lawsuit against Ripple, industry experts are examining whether Ripple (CRYPTO: XRP) could overtake Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) in market capitalization, a feat that would require overcoming significant market and structural challenges.
What Happened: The legal resolution, confirmed by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, has already driven XRP’s price to $2.53, a 13% increase, according to data from CoinMarketCap, reflecting renewed investor confidence.
However, analysts remain cautious about XRP’s ability to surpass Ethereum, which currently holds a circulating market cap of $246 billion compared to XRP’s $146 billion, per CoinMarketCap data.
Garlinghouse on Wednesday announced the end of the legal battle, which began in December 2020, stating, “The case is over,” and framing it as a “victory” against the SEC’s aggressive stance, which he said cost XRP investors $15 billion.
The lawsuit, filed under former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, alleged that XRP was an unregistered security, a claim rejected by a federal judge in 2023, who ruled that XRP does not meet the legal definition of a security.
This decision, upheld through the SEC’s recent withdrawal, has broader implications for the crypto industry, as it aligns XRP’s regulatory status with Ethereum, which the SEC classified as a commodity in 2018.
Garlinghouse criticized the SEC’s approach, …
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