XRP Token Increases in Price After Reports Ripple Close to Ending SEC Lawsuit
XRP has risen in price by 3% in the last hour.
Shaurya Malwa, Cheyenne Ligon | Edited by Aoyon Ashraf, Nikhilesh De Updated March 12, 2025 07:01 PM UTC Published March 12, 2025 04:58 PM UTC
What is important to know:
- According to Fox Business, the ongoing legal battle between Ripple Labs and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that has been ongoing since December 2020 may soon come to an end.
- A 2023 ruling by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres ordered Ripple to pay $125 million in fines for institutional sales of XRP that were deemed unregistered securities offerings, but the company avoided the nearly $2 billion fine sought by the SEC.
The long-running legal battle between Ripple Labs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may finally be over, Fox Business reports, citing “two people with knowledge of the matter.”
The case, which began in December 2020 when the SEC accused Ripple of raising more than $1.3 billion through unregistered sales of its XRP token, may finally be coming to an end — though not without some wrangling over its terms in the final minutes.
Sources told Fox that Ripple’s legal team is seeking to review aspects of a key 2023 ruling by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York (SDNY). That ruling ordered Ripple to pay $125 million in fines for institutional sales of XRP that the court deemed unregistered securities offerings, but exempted the company from the SEC’s demand for a nearly $2 billion fine. The SEC appealed Torres’ ruling shortly before former Chairman Gary Gensler resigned.
Torres’ decision was seen as a victory for Ripple at the time, as the court found that programmatic sales of XRP on exchanges to retail traders do not qualify as securities transactions. However, with the SEC and its new leadership having completely abandoned many of its investigations into crypto companies and agreed to halt ongoing enforcement actions against companies like Coinbase, Cumberland DRW, and Kraken, Ripple’s partial victory may not be so sweet.
Amid these events, XRP increased by 3%.
A Ripple representative did not respond to CoinDesk's request for comment by the time of publication.
Read more: Ripple plans to file 'cross-appeal' in SEC case
