Experts in cryptocurrency law on Friday said that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may have dropped its final claims against executives at Ripple Labs because it wants to speed up a potential appeal to the Second Circuit—but that's not the only noteworthy part of Thursday's news.

"This was not a settlement with the two executives where the executives paid anything to the SEC," said Katten Muchin Rosenman partner Daniel Davis, who previously served as general counsel to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. "This is the SEC saying we're not pursuing these claims anymore, and it was dismissed with prejudice, so the SEC can't bring those types of claims against them again. That's pretty significant."