#XRP (Ripple) Investors Just Received More Great News From the Securities and Exchange CommissionBack in 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued a company called Ripple, alleging it was in breach of financial securities laws for the way it distributed its XRP (XRP -0.43%) cryptocurrency. The case weighed on the price of XRP for years, but the token has soared by 300% since President Donald Trump was elected last November.Simply put, the SEC plans to be much friendlier toward the cryptocurrency industry under the Trump administration. In fact, earlier this month, the regulator agreed to pause its case against Ripple with the intention of negotiating a settlement, which was great news for XRP investors.But there was even more good news announced earlier this week: The Senate officially confirmed President Trump's nominee to serve as chairman of the SEC, and he might be one of the most pro-crypto leaders the agency has ever seen.Ripple created an innovative payments networkTransferring money across borders can be slow and expensive. Some banks use the international network run by SWIFT (the Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications), whereas others don't, meaning they often need intermediaries for every transaction, which can slow down the process.Ripple is trying to solve that problem with the Ripple Payments network. It's designed to connect international banks with one another directly no matter what existing infrastructure they use, paving the way for instant cross-border transfers.It created XRP to standardize those transactions, and it's very cheap to use -- a single cross-border transfer costs just 0.00001 XRP, which is a small fraction of one cent.Therefore, an American bank might send XRP to an Italian bank instead of sending U.S. dollars because it would bypass much higher foreign exchange fees in the process.$