In a sharp critique, Ripple-CEO Brad Garlinghouse publicly condemned the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The reason: On Wednesday, the SEC amended its indictment of crypto exchange Binance by no longer classifying tokens such as Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA) and Polygon (MATIC) as securities. Some crypto industry representatives accused the Gary Gensler-led authority of inconsistency in its actions and a lack of transparency.

Using particularly drastic words, the Ripple CEO speaks of additional evidence of the SEC's hypocrisy. "SEC Chairman Gensler claims the rules are clear, but his authority cannot fathom them himself and applies them arbitrarily, which only adds to the confusion in the industry," he writes in a new X post. The lawsuit between Ripple Labs, the company behind the XRP token, and the stock market watchdog has been ongoing since 2020. The latter is demanding heavy fines of nearly two billion dollars for Ripple.

Ripple continues to struggle, but XRP declines

In her spectacular statement of July 2023, Judge Torres determined that the XRP token is not a security in connection with transactions by retail investors. However, the situation would be different for sales to institutional investors, on which the SEC based its charge. The Ripple CEO's verbal attack may indicate that the legal battle is still far from a resolution. That he accuses the SEC of a "political agenda and/or malicious litigation strategy" is unlikely to increase the chances of a favorable outcome.

Pro-XRP attorney John Deaton joins Garlinghouse in similar words and demands the immediate departure from SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. For now, however, Ripple's combative stance has yielded little. Over the past two days, the XRP price fell 11.8 percent, with the Ripple token now trading at $0.572. With this, the price gains of the past few days have disappeared. Apparently, many investors are disappointed that the lawsuit is going forward. Why the SEC recently vigorously rejected a compromise proposal from Ripple can be read in this item.