Ripple & SEC: Still Waiting?! 🤯

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So, the Ripple versus SEC thing. Still happening. Apparently, dropping one appeal isn’t quite the same as… dropping the appeal. Ripple waved the white flag on June 27th (a Tuesday, if you must know, though what significance that holds remains a mystery for the ages), but the SEC, in a move that can only be described as impressively bureaucratic, hasn’t officially waved back. This leaves everyone – investors, crypto enthusiasts, bewildered onlookers – suspended in a state of anticipatory waiting. It’s like being stuck in an airport, but for legal decisions. ✈️

SEC Meeting Sparks Speculation, but Mostly Just More Meetings

The crypto-sphere, brimming with optimism (and possibly too much caffeine), expected the SEC to have a little chat about this whole mess during a recent, and decidedly closed-door, meeting. The absence of a press release following the July 17th gathering, especially with the ominous word “litigation” lurking on the agenda, led to much frantic speculation. Was it a secret handshake agreement? A dramatic showdown? No. It was, apparently, just a meeting. A perfectly normal, entirely uninformative meeting.

XRP took a tumble from $3.66 to under $3.50, presumably because the market decided to have a bit of an existential crisis. Legal sage Mark Fagel, a former SEC official, calmly explained this was entirely routine. The SEC, it seems, holds these closed-door meetings every Thursday. Agendas, however, are deliberately vague. It’s a bit like a game of cosmic hide-and-seek, only with securities law. So, whether Ripple even featured in the discussion is known only to the SEC… and possibly a few very well-informed squirrels.🐿️

That’s not the cause for delay. The staff needs to draft its action memo. It needs to be reviewed by the divisions and calendared for a commissioner vote. But please, keep lecturing a former senior SEC official about SEC procedures.

— Marc Fagel (@Marc_Fagel) July 18, 2025

“There was no basis to believe that dismissing the Ripple appeal was on yesterday’s calendar. It can take 1-2 months to calendar an SEC enforcement vote, and anyone claiming to know exactly when this will happen is lying,” he said. Which is remarkably honest for a former SEC official, don’t you think?

Why Has the SEC Not Dropped Its Appeal Yet? (Seriously?)

Some XRP devotees – bless their hopeful hearts – pointed out that the SEC doesn’t *always* have Thursday meetings. They reminisced about faster deals in the past. Mr. Fagel, however, responded with the weary patience of a man who’s seen too much. This isn’t about disagreement, he insisted. It’s about… procedure. The hallowed, sacred, endlessly fascinating procedure. “That’s not the cause for delay, but keep lecturing a former senior SEC official about SEC procedures,” he tweeted, with a level of restrained exasperation that could power a small city. 🙄

Fagel Says It’s Just Procedure (Still)

Even with Ripple’s decision, the SEC has to follow its prescribed rituals. Action memos must be drafted, divisions must review, and commissioners must vote. This could, apparently, take 1-2 months. Which, in SEC time, is roughly equivalent to a geological epoch. Fagel also clarified (because apparently, it needed clarifying *again*) that nobody has actually dropped anything yet. The SEC is just… processing. And Ripple? Well, Ripple is just like everyone else, waiting for the processing to be done.

The next closed meeting is July 24th – four weeks after the Judge’s ruling. The general consensus is that the SEC *will* drop the appeal. Eventually. When the planets align. When pigs fly. Once the appeal is officially dismissed (which is a very specific, legally defined dismissal, mind you), the path may be cleared for those elusive XRP-spot ETFs. XRP’s price continues to do the jitterbug, and investors remain glued to their screens, desperately seeking meaning in a universe that often seems determined to offer none. 🤔

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2025-07-19 15:23