After years of legal wrangling that cast a long shadow over XRP, Ripple Labs and the Securities and Exchange Commission finally buried the hatchet. Both sides dropped their appeals in August 2025, which means a 2023 court decision now stands as the final word, clearing the fog that kept XRP off many U.S. trading platforms.
The Second Circuit’s nod to this joint dismissal put an end to a fight that kicked off back in December 2020. Back then, the SEC accused Ripple of raising over $1.3 billion through an illegal securities sale.
A landmark ruling that cut both ways!
The core of this entire outcome rests on a judgment from U.S District Judge Analisa Torres in July 2023. She drew a sharp line in the sand, treating different XRP sales in completely different ways.
- When Ripple sold XRP directly to big-money institutions, the court saw it as an illegal securities offering because those buyers were banking on Ripple’s work to make a profit.
- However, for the everyday sales on public exchanges, Judge Torres came to a different conclusion. She argued that these “programmatic sales” were not securities deals since buyers on an open market had no idea they were purchasing from Ripple.
This judgment established that the XRP token itself isn’t a security. At the time of writing, it was priced at $2.94 after falling by over 17% in just over a month.
Source: TradingView
Once the main judgment was in, Ripple was handed a $125 million civil penalty for its institutional sales, a steep discount from the $2 billion the SEC originally wanted. While both the SEC and Ripple initially postured with appeals, they jointly decided to walk away in August 2025, ending the legal drama for good.
What does this mean for XRP down the road?
With Judge Torres’s decision locked in, the future for XRP might be very different.
- A green light for U.S exchanges – The ruling sets a powerful precedent that buying and selling XRP on the open market isn’t a securities transaction. This gives American exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken the regulatory cover they needed to re-list the coin and keep it available.
- Opening the door for Wall Street products – With the legal questions mostly settled, the coast is clearer for new investment vehicles. Chatter about a spot XRP Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) is running rampant, and several big-name asset managers have already thrown their hats in the ring. The lawsuit’s conclusion is widely seen as the key that could finally unlock an SEC approval.
- Possible blueprint for other coins – While not legally binding for other digital assets, the case provides a new way of looking at cryptocurrencies. This focus on the specific nature of a transaction, rather than the asset itself, could shape how regulators and courts handle similar cases in the future.
- Ripple can finally get back to business – The fine stings, but the overall result is a huge win for Ripple. The company can now move forward with its plans in the U.S. without the constant drain of a lawsuit that has stalled its home-turf growth for years.
Inside the XRP Ledger’s 2025 playbook
The XRP Ledger (XRPL) is undergoing a major facelift, pushing beyond its payment-focused roots to compete in the bustling arena of decentralized finance (DeFi). This shift is being powered by three big upgrades – A built-in Automated Market Maker (AMM), a sidechain that speaks Ethereum’s language, and a unique approach to smart contracts called “Hooks.”
Automated Market Makers are now live!
- Where it stands – The native AMM feature (known as XLS-30) officially hit the main network in March 2024. A minor hiccup with trade routing got squashed quickly, letting the liquidity pools run as intended.
- What it does – Because this AMM is baked directly into the ledger’s DNA, it offers a more secure and streamlined way to trade compared to add-on contracts on other blockchains. It cleverly plays off the ledger’s original order book, always finding the best price for a trade. There’s even a slick auction system that rewards traders for balancing pools, with some of that profit kicking back to the people providing the liquidity to ease the sting of impermanent loss. The feature has caught on, pulling more trading activity onto the ledger and setting the stage for more advanced financial tools.
Sidechains – Opening the floodgates to Ethereum’s world
- Where it stands – A sidechain compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), built in partnership with Peersyst Technology, went live sometime in the second quarter of 2025.
- What it does – Think of this as a parallel highway that lets developers bring their existing Ethereum apps and smart contracts over to the XRPL world. A decentralized bridge connects it to the main network, and it uses a wrapped version of XRP (eXRP) to pay for gas. This single move has developers buzzing and is a game-changer for making the XRPL a do-it-all blockchain for everything from DeFi and NFTs to other Web3 projects.
“Hooks” – A smarter, simpler kind of smart contract
- Where It Stands: “Hooks” are tiny, powerful bits of code that add smart contract rules to XRPL accounts. They aren’t on the main network yet as of mid-2025, but they’re already up and running on Xahau, a sidechain cousin to the XRPL.
- What It Does: By living on the ledger’s base layer, Hooks offer a super-secure and fast alternative to the complex EVM model. They’re designed to be lean and prevent problems like runaway code loops. People could use them for things like setting up automatic savings, enforcing company-specific trading rules, or creating self-managing financial agreements right on the ledger. Having both the EVM sidechain for mass appeal and Hooks for high-speed native tasks gives developers a powerful and flexible choice.
XRP tries to win over Wall Street, but it’s still no Bitcoin
Now that the SEC lawsuit is in the rearview mirror, institutional investors are finally giving XRP a serious look. But it’s playing a tough game of catch-up with market darlings Bitcoin and Ethereum. While the legal win and the buzz around potential ETFs are turning heads, old worries about the coin’s centralization and market readiness haven’t vanished.
A poll from early 2025 suggested over a third of institutional players now hold some XRP. The end of the SEC case in August 2025 was the green light many were waiting for, confirming XRP wasn’t a security when traded on exchanges. That confidence has triggered a race to file for spot XRP ETFs from heavyweights like Grayscale and Bitwise, with everyone watching for an SEC verdict by October 2025. If approved, analysts think these funds could pull in billions of institutional dollars.
Why XRP still sits at the kids’ table
Despite the recent momentum, XRP isn’t in the same league as Bitcoin or Ethereum for big investors. The top two coins have a massive head start for a few key reasons –
- Regulatory scars healed – Bitcoin and Ethereum have been through the regulatory wringer for years. The approval of their ETFs in the U.S. created a path that XRP is just starting to walk.
- Power of no one in charge – Institutions love that Bitcoin and Ethereum are genuinely decentralized. Ripple’s massive XRP holdings still make some investors nervous about one company having too much influence.
- Market is already built – A whole industry of custodians, brokers, and derivative markets has grown up around Bitcoin and Ethereum, giving big money the tools it needs to invest safely.
- Simpler stories sell – Bitcoin is “digital gold.” Ethereum is the foundation for a new internet. These are easy ideas for investors to grasp. XRP’s job as a super-fast currency for payments is a bit more niche and has to compete with both old-school banks and new-school stablecoins.
If XRP wants a seat at the main table with the institutional giants, it needs to shake off the last of its legal baggage, prove its utility with real-world data, and inspire the creation of a more mature market around it.
The SEC’s decision on the ETFs will show whether XRP’s legal victory can translate into a real Wall Street welcome.
Bigger than payments, aiming for trillion-dollar markets!
The XRP Ledger (XRPL) is broadening its horizons, moving from its original mission of fixing cross-border payments to chasing massive opportunities in tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), decentralized finance (DeFi), and NFTs.
These new ventures are designed to make the network more useful and, in turn, increase the value of XRP itself.
The XRPL is making a serious play for the RWA market, a sector expected to be worth trillions. The ledger’s speed, low costs, and built-in features for compliance make it a great platform for managing digital versions of real-world items without needing bulky smart contracts. The goal is to connect the old world of finance with the new, making it possible to trade things that have always been hard to sell, like real estate or private equity.
A full-fledged DeFi scene is sprouting on the XRPL. A built-in automated market maker (AMM) is already up and running to boost trading liquidity. Ripple is also working on a DeFi platform for institutions that will include a special members-only exchange, a lending service, and a new type of token. The launch of an EVM-compatible sidechain in 2025 is a huge piece of this puzzle, designed to pull in developers and apps from the massive Ethereum community.
Thanks to a new standard called XLS-20, the XRPL can now handle NFTs directly. This native support means minting and trading NFTs on the ledger is faster, cheaper, and safer than on many other networks. It even includes creator-friendly features like automatically enforced royalties.
How all this could boost XRP’s value
This big-picture expansion is about creating more reasons for people to use and hold XRP.
- More transactions, more demand – Every single action on the XRPL—whether for RWAs, DeFi, or NFTs—costs a small amount of XRP, constantly driving demand for the token.
- Ledger’s universal translator – XRP is the default bridge currency on the network’s built-in exchange, making it the essential link between all the different assets being traded.
- Fuel for the sidechain – The new EVM sidechain uses XRP for gas fees, opening up a whole new channel of demand.
- Backbone of DeFi – As the DeFi ecosystem grows, XRP will likely become a key asset for collateral, which would lock up a portion of the supply and make it more valuable.
By transforming into an all-in-one financial hub, the XRPL is setting itself up to be a major player in the future of on-chain finance, which could create lasting demand for its native coin.
