The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission finished its prolonged lawsuit against Ripple Labs by keeping a $125 million fine while ending a four-year legal fight that drew widespread cryptocurrency industry attention.
The parties agreed to abandon their appeals of U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres’ 2023 decision which established XRP token security status for institutional sales but exempted public market transactions. The August 2024 order from Torres prohibited Ripple from selling XRP to institutions while imposing a $125 million penalty.
Ripple faced an SEC lawsuit in December 2020 because the agency claimed the company sold unregistered securities. The Trump administration’s second term saw the regulator shift its crypto stance to become more friendly so it joined forces with Torres to request a $50 million penalty reduction and an end to the injunction. The judge denied the request because he believed the public needed enforcement actions to continue.
The market capitalization ranking of XRP as the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency remains unchanged according to CoinMarketCap data behind Bitcoin and Ethereum. XRP’s chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty declared through his X account that the case had reached its conclusion.
During Trump’s second presidential term the SEC terminated its civil actions against major cryptocurrency exchanges including Binance and Coinbase and Kraken. The Ripple decision maintains the original injunction together with the full amount of the fine.
