Stuart Alderoty, chief legal officer at blockchain payments firm Ripple Labs, said the potential next head of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, once confirmed by the Senate, could potentially dismiss civil suits against crypto firms.
In a Jan. 28 X Spaces discussion for XRP Community Day 2025, Alderoty said he was hopeful that the SEC, under potential chair Paul Atkins, would drop crypto enforcement cases not involving fraud, in which the lawsuit was based mainly on registration issues. Ripple remains embroiled in an SEC lawsuit in which both parties have filed appeals after a judge issued a liability ruling in 2024.
“That’ll take some time to work through — the SEC is still a bureaucracy,” said Alderoty, referring to Atkins potentially dropping lawsuits, adding:
“Litigation, regulation by enforcement, is not the path that this country should be pursuing. I believe the new SEC understands that, and I remain cautiously optimistic that at some point during 2025, the case will be voluntarily withdrawn.”
The SEC case filed against Ripple in December 2020 alleged the company used XRP (XRP) tokens as an unregistered security to raise funds. A federal judge found Ripple liable for more than $125 million in August 2024, leading to the SEC appealing the ruling and the blockchain firm filing a cross-appeal.
Ripple optimistic for crypto under Trump
According to the Ripple CLO, there was “nothing but upside” for the company based on the Trump administration’s approach to crypto so far, citing a presidential executive order to establish a working group studying digital asset regulation, the SEC launching a crypto task force and other actions. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse claimed before Trump’s inauguration that 75% of the firm’s job openings would be based in the US as a direct result of the 2024 election.
It’s unclear if Atkins will have the votes to pass a Senate confirmation hearing after his nomination by US President Donald Trump. Alderoty said the Republican-run Congress — containing many lawmakers Ripple may have helped elect with $45 million in contributions to the political action committee Fairshake — could also move forward with a crypto market structure bill.
“I think we’ve got a pro-crypto Congress driven by a pro-crypto president: I think we can see [legislation] happening certainly before the end of 2025,” said the Ripple executive.
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Alderoty and Garlinghouse also seem to have a close relationship with Trump. The pair had dinner with the then-president-elect at his Mar-a-Lago home in January and attended inauguration events in Washington, DC as official guests.
The Ripple chief legal officer personally donated more than $300,000 to fundraising and political action committees supporting Trump in the 2024 election. The company also contributed $5 million worth of XRP to Trump’s presidential inaugural fund.
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