According to an announcement by Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal, the American Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will drop its charges in the Coinbase lawsuit. Grewal made this announcement on Friday in a Coinbase blog. If this indeed happens, it will have major consequences for the future of crypto, particularly the Ripple lawsuit.

SEC drops Coinbase lawsuit under Trump administration

In June 2023, Coinbase was sued by the SEC for acting unlawfully as a broker. The same week, competitor Binance was also sued. In its lawsuit against Coinbase, the SEC claimed that the platform had illegally earned billions as a broker and exchange “without having registered these functions with the Commission, as required by law.”

Coinbase, however, continued to insist that it operates completely within the law. CLO Paul Grewal said the following: “Coinbase went public in April 2021. As part of this, the SEC reviewed our business model and S1 disclosures, after which it allowed us to go public. Two years later, they sued us, even though absolutely nothing has been changed about our business model.”

Since the start of Trump’s presidency, former SEC chairman Gary Gensler has resigned. This is partly due to the conflicting views between President Trump and Gensler. Gensler’s successor, Paul Atkins, who was nominated by Trump, is more flexible with crypto regulations. The SEC now has a special crypto task force that is focused on building a clear regulatory structure.

Although the SEC staff has already announced that it will drop the Coinbase lawsuit, this still needs to be officially approved by the Commission. In all likelihood, this will happen next week. Not only will the case be dismissed, but the SEC will also no longer be allowed to make the same accusations against Coinbase. In this case, the ruling could serve as a precedent for other lawsuits, including, for example, that of Ripple.

The influence of the Coinbase lawsuit on Ripple’s legal battle

The biggest problem for Coinbase was a lack of a regulatory structure around different classifications, with the SEC claiming that the platform could remove a token at any time. However, the charges in the Ripple lawsuit are different. For example, the SEC believed that it was not allowed to raise money by selling XRP tokens without registration.

SEC staff have agreed to dismiss their case against us (pending Commission approval).
But this isn’t the end.
It’s the beginning.
And if there were ever a time to build—that time is now.

Thank you to everyone who stood with us, and stood with crypto. pic.twitter.com/gjokUZPotz

— Coinbase 🛡️ (@coinbase) February 21, 2025

Although in both cases there was a lack of clear standards for crypto, it is still difficult to drop the charges against Ripple. However, the SEC has recently removed the Ripple lawsuit from its website, which may indicate that the regulatory body is waiting for broader changes until it drops the case altogether.

More flexible crypto policy is a good sign for small projects

The news of the Coinbase lawsuit is in any case a positive sign for the future of crypto. Small projects with potential can also benefit enormously from this, including the brand-new crypto project Solaxy ($SOLX). Solaxy combines the strengths of Solana and Ethereum. For example, it uses the speed and affordability of Solana, while benefitting from the scalability and liquidity of Ethereum.

Solaxy is still in the presale phase, making it difficult to say how well the project is doing on the market. However, it has already raised more than $23 million, which shows that early investors have confidence in the project. Combine this with the positive sentiment that comes from the renewed confidence in the SEC and Solaxy has serious potential.