From Coinbase to Ripple: The Biggest Crypto Cases Dumped by Trump's SEC

The momentum has shifted in the yearslong battle between top crypto companies and protocols and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the new Trump administration. The regulator, which now has a crypto-friendly chairman in Paul Atkins and a crypto task force led by longtime industry advocate Hester Peirce, is moving away from what Pierce and others have called “regulation by enforcement” to less hostile engagements with crypto. Thus far, those words have rung true with the SEC recently backing away from fights with multiple top crypto companies. Here are the SEC's biggest pivots, reversals, and exits so far under Trump. Ripple The SEC and Ripple Labs officially dropped their respective appeals in August , bringing to an end the four-year lawsuit and landmark crypto case. The resolution breaks the longest-standing battle between the regulator and a crypto firm, stemming back to 2021 allegations about the unregistered sale of securities with XRP. In 2023, a partial ruling fell mostly in favor of Ripple, but the SEC later appealed . In early 2025, Ripple and the SEC agreed to jointly file requests to suspend their legal appeals, opting instead to “pursue a negotiated resolution ” pending official Commission approval. But that negotiated resolution was slammed by SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw and later denied by a U.S. district judge . After a second denial by the courts, Ripple said it would drop its cross-appeal in June , ultimately finalizing the move in August alongside the SEC, ending the case. When Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse first announced that the case against Ripple would be ending pending Commission approval, he called it “a victory and [a] long overdue surrender from the SEC.” Binance The SEC submitted a filing on May 29 to dismiss its ongoing case against Binance, which alleged that the crypto exchange, founder and former CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, and Binance.US offered the unregistered sale of securities and more. The parties sought a joint stay, or a 60-day pause, in February to seek a resolution to the case, largely thanks to the SEC’s newly established crypto task force , which both parties anticipated could “impact and facilitate the resolution of the case.” The exchange has dealt with alleged securities, money laundering, and sanctions compliance issues since at least 2023, which led to two separate settlements for $4.3 billion and $2.7 billion , respectively. Zhao was later pardoned by President Trump in October. Crypto rulemaking case On February 17, the SEC voluntarily dropped an appeal in a case revolving around the regulator's previous attempts to extend securities laws to decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and users. The appeal was made after a federal judge in Texas called the regulator's expanded definitions unlawful, citing that it was conflating DeFi traders with financial brokers. The dropped appeal ensures that DeFi protocols do not need to register with the SEC as securities exchanges, leading the Blockchain Association CEO Kristin Smith to call it a “complete and total victory.” Coinbase Leading American crypto exchange Coinbase had its lawsuit...

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