it took a while after the ETH and BTC free pass speech for those tokens to really take off in price. the same may be for Ripple. If Ripple settles then there won't be a blanket cover for other cryptos, meaning each crypto may have it own day in court with the SEC. I'd be very very surprised if the SEC still wants to face a court judgement. there is so much damning material. A lot of it from the SEC itself. So I truly feel a settlement is the best outcome for the SEC. I see it this way ,my opinion only. Right now the SEC v Ripple case isn't that big a news anywhere. Only diehard crypto junkies are into it. it can stay that way, especially in the US with a successful settlement. by successful i mean on Ripples terms. But a Trial lasting at least 2-3 weeks with drip drip exposures, and all the SEC's dirty laundry hung out to dry with the very real possibility of losing big time making the front pages through out the whole country? Gary Gensler is a political animal after all, and politically he'll want to cover his backside and move onto the next victim.
