Reese Merrick, Ripple’s senior executive officer and managing director for the Middle East and Africa, looks back on the past five years.
This comes as the SEC litigation enters its fifth year. On December 22, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a high-profile enforcement action against Ripple, alleging that the company violated securities laws by selling XRP without registering it as a security.
Merrick reflected on this, saying that the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple five years ago, adding that he remembers it like it was yesterday.
Ripple executives said the most memorable thing during this difficult time was watching the entire global team come together with unyielding focus and determination. He added that looking at its unity and refusal to be distracted along with the facts made him completely confident that Ripple would definitely win.
Fast forward to today, Merrick said Ripple has not only survived, but has built and grown exponentially through Ripple.
Five years ago, the SEC filed a lawsuit against @Ripple.
I remember it like it was yesterday!
What I remember most was watching the entire global team come together with unyielding focus and determination.
That unity and refusal to be distracted, and…
— Reece Merrick (@reece_merrick) December 22, 2025
Merrick added that with SEC lawsuits now a thing of the past, the future has never looked brighter, not just for Ripple but for the industry as a whole.
The future is brighter than ever
2025 will be Ripple’s most ambitious year to date, with four major acquisitions aimed at becoming a one-stop infrastructure provider for moving value. Ripple has invested nearly $4 billion into the cryptocurrency ecosystem through strategic investments and acquisitions.
Ripple’s now completed $1 billion acquisition of GTreasury marks a significant expansion into the multi-trillion dollar corporate finance space, a market predicted by many to lead the next phase of digital asset adoption.
The company’s $200 million acquisition of Rail is expected to make Ripple Payments the most comprehensive end-to-end stablecoin payments solution on the market. 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 valuation of $40 billion from institutional investors led by an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group, an affiliate of Citadel Securities, and funds managed by Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, Brevan Howard, and Marshall Weiss.
In a significant milestone, the RLUSD stablecoin has been greenlisted by Abu Dhabi’s FSRA and can now be used as collateral on exchanges, loans, and prime securities platforms within ADGlobalMarket.