Ripple Senior Executive Officer and Managing Director of Middle East and Africa Reece Merrick reflects on the journey in the last five years.
This comes as the SEC lawsuit marks five years: on Dec. 22, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a high-profile enforcement action against Ripple, alleging that it broke securities laws by selling XRP without registering it as a security.
Merrick reflects on this, saying that five years ago, the SEC launched its lawsuit against Ripple, adding that he remembers it as if it were yesterday.
The Ripple exec said that what stayed with him the most during these trying times was watching the entire global team rally with unbreakable focus and determination. He added that seeing that unity and refusal to be distracted, along with the facts, made him absolutely positive that Ripple would win undoubtedly.
Fast forward to now, and Merrick said that Ripple did not just survive, it built and grew exponentially through it.
Five years ago, the SEC launched its lawsuit against @Ripple.
I remember it as if it were yesterday!
What stayed with me most was watching the entire global team rally with unbreakable focus and determination.
Seeing that unity and refusal to be distracted, along with the…
— Reece Merrick (@reece_merrick) December 22, 2025
With the SEC lawsuit now history, Merrick adds that the future has never looked brighter, not just for Ripple, but for the entire industry.
Future has never been brighter
2025 marked Ripple’s most ambitious year yet, with four major acquisitions in its bid to be the one-stop infrastructure provider for moving value. Ripple has invested nearly $4 billion into the crypto ecosystem through strategic investments and acquisitions.
Ripple’s now-closed $1 billion acquisition of GTreasury marks a significant expansion into the multitrillion-dollar corporate finance arena, a market many predict will lead the next phase of digital asset adoption.
The company’s $200 million acquisition of Rail is anticipated to make Ripple Payments the market’s most comprehensive end-to-end stablecoin payments solution. Ripple also acquired Hidden Road, now Ripple Prime, completing the liquidity and execution layer of its one-stop-shop vision.
In November, Ripple announced a $500 million strategic investment at a $40 billion valuation from institutional investors led by funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group, affiliates of Citadel Securities, Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, Brevan Howard and Marshall Wace.
In a significant milestone, RLUSD stablecoin was greenlisted by Abu Dhabi’s FSRA, enabling its use as collateral on exchanges, for lending and on prime brokerage platforms within ADGlobalMarket.