Four years, one lawsuit, and a mixed ruling later, Ripple’s CEO is taking a victory lap. Brad Garlinghouse called a federal judge’s determination that XRP is not a security one of the most consequential moments in crypto regulation, arguing it opens the door for institutional adoption and clearer rules across the industry.

What the judge actually ruled

The SEC sued Ripple in December 2020, alleging the company sold XRP as an unregistered security, raising $1.3 billion through those sales.

In July 2023, Judge Analisa Torres delivered a split decision. She found that Ripple’s institutional sales of XRP did qualify as securities transactions. But programmatic sales of XRP on public exchanges were not…