System organizes the timeline of the Ripple vs. SEC case: an expensive and lengthy showdown

Original Title: Ripple vs SEC --- a $200m showdown that's been brewing for two decades

Original Author: Tyler Pearson, DL News

Compiled by: Hailsman, ChainCatcher

The battle between Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is far from over.

The cryptocurrency exchange and the SEC are preparing for a courtroom showdown in the second quarter of next year.

Previously, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated that the company has spent over $200 million on legal fees to date.

When U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres made a partial ruling in favor of Ripple in July, some crypto experts hailed it as a "clear" victory for Ripple.

XRP, the token used by Ripple to facilitate transactions on its network, surged in price following the ruling.

Nevertheless, under the leadership of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, the SEC has not let Ripple off the hook. Since the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX last year, the SEC has launched a series of enforcement actions against the industry, including lawsuits against cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Coinbase.

This week, the judge denied the SEC's motion to appeal parts of the ruling against Ripple. While this is a setback for the regulator, the case is still expected to go to trial in 2024, with other parts yet to be decided.

We have compiled a timeline of the SEC and Ripple case to help understand what has happened: how the case has developed to this point and what might happen next.

2004

• The origins of Ripple can be traced back to 2004, when Canadian programmer Ryan Fugger launched RipplePay, a peer-to-peer payment system, years before blockchain technology. It relied on some form of digital IOU or credit rather than cryptocurrency.

2011

• May: Things really began in 2011 when cryptographers David Schwartz, Mt. Gox founder Jed McCaleb, and video game designer and chief strategist Arthur Britto became interested in Bitcoin. They sought to develop a more efficient system that did not require proof-of-work mining.
• In 2011, McCaleb published a post on the Bitcointalk forum criticizing the energy consumption of Bitcoin mining.

2012

• June: Schwartz, McCaleb, and Britto acquired the rights to the RipplePay name and brand from Fugger. They renamed the entity Ripple Labs. The team launched the XRP ledger.
• August: Angel investor Chris Larsen joined Ripple and eventually became the company's COO.
• Ripple Labs developed the blockchain infrastructure for Ripple, resulting in the payment network RippleNet.

2013

• April: Ripple raised $3.5 million from multiple investors, but did not disclose the total at the time.
• July: McCaleb left Ripple to start a new project.

2014

• February 18: MIT Technology Review listed Ripple Labs among the 50 smartest companies list, ranking Ripple at 50.
• June: McCaleb founded Ripple competitor Stellar. Due to his early role as a founder and developer, he previously received 9 billion XRP, worth about $126 million at the time. In 2021, it was revealed that as XRP's price rose, McCaleb sold his holdings for over $2 billion.
• September: Ripple announced partnerships with CBW Bank and Cross River Bank banks. The company stated they were the first U.S. banks to adopt Ripple's open-source distributed trading infrastructure.

2015

• April: Ripple hired former Yahoo COO Brad Garlinghouse for the payment network position. Garlinghouse began promoting the XRP token as a bridge currency for banks and institutions and an alternative to SWIFT.
• May: According to regulators, FinCEN fined Ripple Labs $700,000 penalty, marking the U.S.'s "first civil enforcement action against virtual currency traders." The agency accused Ripple of "willfully violating" multiple regulations, including selling digital currency without registration and failing to implement anti-money laundering practices. Ripple was required to pay $450,000 immediately as part of the fine and must make up the remaining amount within 30 days.
• October: Ripple Labs rebranded itself as Ripple.
• According to data from OpenSecrets, Ripple spent a total of $150,000 on lobbying in the U.S. in 2015.

2016

• June: Ripple obtained a virtual currency license from the New York State Department of Financial Services. It applied under the company name XRP II LLC.
• September: Ripple raised $55 million in Series B funding from supporters including Standard Chartered and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The funding was announced.

2017

• September: Blockchain startup R3 sued Ripple Labs over a contract dispute that allowed it to purchase XRP at a significant discount before 2019. Ripple's CEO attempted to terminate the contract, prompting R3 to sue Ripple for breach of contract. Subsequently, R3 provided solutions for several central bank digital currency projects.
• December: XRP's price surged from $0.0063 on January 1 to over $1, an increase of 15,873%.
• According to OpenSecrets, Ripple spent $50,000 on lobbying in 2017.

2018

• January: Ripple announced that it had provided its xCurrent product to over 100 financial institutions. XRP briefly surpassed Ethereum to become the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization after Bitcoin.
• September: Ripple and R3 ended their dispute with a closed-door settlement. Although leaked documents in 2020 indicated the settlement amount exceeded $240 million, they kept the outcome confidential.
• According to OpenSecrets, Ripple spent $450,000 on lobbying in 2018.

2019

• June 17: Ripple announced a partnership with one of the largest international remittance companies, MoneyGram, which would use Ripple's xRapid product. The partnership ended in 2021 after a series of developments.
• December 16: XRP fell from its all-time high of $3.32 in January 2018 to 0.183 dollars. Due to the broader cryptocurrency market suffering from a bear market, it plummeted.
• According to OpenSecrets, Ripple spent $220,000 on lobbying in 2019.

2020

• September 24: The XRP Ledger (or XRPL) Foundation was established as an independent nonprofit entity to promote the adoption of XRP. The foundation raised $6.5 million to create an XRP community fund and strengthen infrastructure.
• December 21: The SEC sued Ripple Labs, along with Garlinghouse and Larsen. The agency claimed Ripple conducted an unregistered securities offering. Garlinghouse denied the SEC's allegations and pledged that the company would fight the lawsuit. Following the news, XRP dropped from $0.58 to $0.21.
• December 22: Judge Analisa Torres was assigned to the Ripple case.
• December 28: Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase suspended trading of the XRP token, with Coinbase's Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal citing the recent lawsuit as a primary reason.
• According to OpenSecrets, Ripple spent $330,000 on lobbying throughout 2020.

2021

• March 3: Garlinghouse and Larsen questioned the SEC's actions, arguing that the agency did not provide them with fair notice regarding the classification of Ripple's XRP token as a security. They stated in a letter to the court that the SEC failed to provide clear guidance for cryptocurrency companies—a claim that would be echoed by numerous cryptocurrency executives in various forms in the years to come.
• March 8: The SEC requested a hearing with Judge Sarah Netburn to address the fair notice claims made by Ripple executives and other issues.
• March 22: Judge Netburn ruled that XRP has value and utility, distinguishing it from cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. This ruling was significant as it highlighted legal differences between cryptocurrencies and paved the way for future classifications and enforcement actions.
• April 13: SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce proposed Safe Harbor Proposal 2.0, which would grant cryptocurrency companies a three-year grace period "under certain conditions" during which they would be "exempt from the registration provisions of federal securities laws" to facilitate participation and development of functional or decentralized networks. She also stated that the appointment of Gensler as the new SEC chairman marked "the best time for the commission to reconsider how to modify our rules to responsibly adapt to this new technology."
• June 14: The court extended the SEC's deadline to August 31. The court had previously required the agency to disclose its internal policies regarding cryptocurrency trading, conflicts of interest, and securities classification.
• August 27: Ripple's lawyers filed a motion requesting the SEC to disclose its policies regarding cryptocurrency trading among agency employees. The application was denied by the court in September.
• October 15: Experts found that the deadline was set to collect opinions from individuals in both the cryptocurrency and traditional finance sectors. The discovery phase aimed to enrich perspectives on the case.
• According to OpenSecrets, Ripple spent $1.12 million on lobbying in 2021.

2022

• September 17: The court approved the request from the U.S. cryptocurrency advocacy group Digital Chamber of Commerce to submit an amicus curiae brief. Amicus curiae means "friend of the court," referring to individuals or organizations that are not parties to the case. An amicus curiae brief is a written document submitted to the court in which someone can present legal arguments and suggestions regarding a specific case. In the brief, the Digital Chamber did not take a position on the SEC's claim that XRP is an unregistered security but emphasized what it described as a lack of regulatory clarity regarding digital assets.
• October 31: Coinbase submitted an amicus curiae brief petition to the federal court on behalf of Ripple Labs. In the brief, Coinbase raised the question of whether the SEC provided fair notice before taking enforcement action against Ripple. Months later, in 2023, Coinbase would face its own enforcement action from the SEC.
• December 2: After the November 30 deadline, the SEC and Ripple Labs publicly released supporting statements. These documents provided new insights into the arguments and legal claims of both parties. Both sides urged the appointed Judge Torres to make a ruling in their favor without sending the case to trial.
• December 22: The SEC requested the court to block the release of the "Hinman documents," which Ripple Labs argued were relevant to the case due to their sensitivity. These documents contained drafts of a speech by former SEC Director William Hinman, in which he stated that Ethereum's Ether is not a security.
• According to OpenSecrets, Ripple spent $1.08 million on lobbying in 2022.

2023

• May 8: CEO Garlinghouse stated that Ripple has spent $200 million defending against the SEC case.
• June 6: The SEC sued Coinbase for operating an illegal exchange and facilitating the trading of unregistered securities.
• June 12: The Hinman documents were released. While these documents disclosed Hinman's previous statements, their impact was relatively muted at the time of release.
• According to OpenSecrets, Ripple spent $480,000 on lobbying in the first half of 2023.
• July 13: The SEC v. Ripple Labs case resulted in a split ruling. Torres ruled that Ripple's sale of XRP to exchanges did not constitute a violation, while sales to institutions were deemed illegal. The decision will be tried by a jury. Coinbase and other exchanges relisted XRP following the ruling.
• July 21: After a judge in the Terraform Labs case questioned Torres's ruling, the SEC hinted at a possible appeal.
• July 24: Ripple's UK and European head Sendi Young told DL News that the partial victory against the SEC laid the groundwork for further international expansion.
• August 7: A former SEC litigation attorney told DL News that just because the Terraform judge rejected Torres's ruling, it does not mean Ripple's game is over. BakerHostetler partner and former SEC litigation attorney Teresa Goody Guillén stated, "Just as this court clearly rejected the XRP ruling, another court could just as easily reject this decision."
• August 9: On the same day Judge Torres set a tentative schedule for a jury trial in the second quarter of 2024, the SEC announced it would seek to appeal her July ruling.
• August 17: DL News revealed that Ripple is one of the cryptocurrency companies that spent the most on lobbying in the U.S. in 2023. The list includes Binance, Coinbase, and Crypto.com.
• August 28: Ripple announced on X (formerly Twitter) that it would hold a "community celebration" in New York in September. "As promised—it's time for a real victory party," Garlinghouse wrote on Twitter.
• September 6: DL News reported that Ripple paid lobbyists to influence legislation to make the Commodity Futures Trading Commission the de facto cryptocurrency regulator in the U.S. Many in the crypto space believe the CFTC is a more friendly and lenient regulatory body than the SEC. Former FTX CEO SBF lobbied for CFTC regulation of cryptocurrencies before his exchange collapsed.
• October 3: Torres denied the SEC's motion to allow an appeal.