Ripple to Pay $75 Million Court-Ordered Fine from SEC, Drops Cross-Appeal
Last August, New York Judge Analisa Torres ruled that Ripple must pay regulators $125 million in fines for violating securities laws through institutional sales of XRP.
Cheyenne Ligon | Edited by Nikhilesh De , Mar 25, 2025 20:03 UTC
Key points:
- The SEC and Ripple Labs have reached a tentative agreement that could finally resolve their long-running legal battle.
- The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has agreed to return $75 million of the $125 million fine a New York judge imposed on Ripple last year, leaving itself with only $50 million to settle the case.
The long-running lawsuit between Ripple Labs and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) appears to finally be nearing a conclusion, with Ripple emerging victorious.
The SEC will return the bulk of the $125 million fine Ripple paid last year in court-ordered settlements, according to a statement Tuesday from Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderothy, keeping just $50 million and returning the remainder of $75 million to Ripple.
The proposed agreement, which must be approved by the commission and the court, comes just a week after the SEC agreed to drop its appeal of U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres’ 2023 ruling that found that Ripple’s programmatic sales of XRP to retail exchanges did not violate federal securities laws. Torres determined that only Ripple’s institutional sales violated securities laws and assessed Ripple a $125 million fine. While significant, the fine was a fraction of the nearly $2 billion in civil penalties, disgorgement, and interest that the SEC had originally sought.
As part of the expected settlement, Ripple agreed to drop its cross-appeal to the SEC's appeal. Alderoti also said the SEC will ask the court to lift the standard injunction imposed on Ripple.
XRP rose 1.5% in the minutes following the news before giving up some of its gains, recently trading around $2.47. The token is down 0.5% over the past 24 hours, according to Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader CoinDesk 20 Index crypto benchmark.
An SEC representative did not immediately respond to CoinDesk's request for comment on the matter.
— Christian Sandor contributed reporting.
