Ripple Agrees to $125M Penalty, XRP Surges After SEC Battle

After a lengthy legal dispute, Ripple Labs and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have settled, with Ripple agreeing to pay $125 million in civil penalties.

End of Ripple-SEC Legal Dispute

As per the court ruling, the settlement entails:

• Ripple will pay $125,035,150 in civil penalties, a substantial decrease from the SEC’s initial $2 billion claim.
• Ripple was found to have breached securities laws with its “Institutional Sales” of XRP, considered unregistered investment contracts by the court.
• However, the court determined that Ripple’s “Programmatic Sales” and “Other Distributions” of XRP were not classified as unregistered securities offerings.
• The court also found that individual XRP sales by Ripple co-founders were not investment contract offerings.

XRP Price Surge by 20%

The court highlighted that while Ripple’s violations of securities laws were significant, they did not involve fraud or severe misconduct. Additionally, the SEC failed to demonstrate that Ripple’s actions caused substantial losses or risks to investors.

The settlement represents a substantial win for Ripple, dispelling legal uncertainties and allowing the company to progress without legal shadows.

Following the resolution, the price of XRP surged by 20% to $0.6056 from a recent low of $0.4315 on Monday during the market downturn. 

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com