- Ripple Labs agrees to pay a $50 million fine to end its SEC investigation, following a New York court’s ruling.
- Ripple drops its cross-appeal of the decision that XRP isn’t automatically a security in programmatic sales.
- The SEC’s shift in approach comes after Mark Uyeda’s leadership and Ripple’s CEO calling it a “long overdue surrender.”
Ripple Labs has agreed to fork over a hefty $50 million fine, bringing an end to the long-running saga with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), according to the company’s Chief Legal Officer, Stuart Alderoty, who dropped the news on Tuesday.
In a post on X (you know, the platform formerly known as Twitter), Alderoty broke it down: “The SEC will keep $50M of the $125M fine,” referencing the penalty Ripple was slapped with by a New York court back in August. The fine was related to unregistered XRP sales to institutional investors.
But wait, there’s more. Alderoty made it clear that Ripple’s decided to drop its cross-appeal on U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres’ ruling, which basically said that XRP isn’t necessarily a security at first glance—especially when it comes to those programmatic sales to buyers flying under the radar.
Now, let’s rewind a bit. The SEC, under the leadership of former Chair Gary Gensler, originally came after Ripple with a massive $2 billion penalty, claiming Ripple was in hot water for unregistered securities transactions. This lawsuit? It all kicked off during President Donald Trump’s first term in office.
Alderoty’s comments came on the heels of Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s own acknowledgment that, yep, the SEC case is finally over. Garlinghouse even called it a “long overdue surrender” on the part of the regulator just last week.
Many saw this shift coming, especially after Trump’s reelection. Once Mark Uyeda took over as Acting SEC Chair, things started to change. The SEC has since pulled back from several cases, including actions against big-name crypto exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken.
Alderoty clarified on Tuesday that while things are looking promising, the decision still has to go through a Commission vote. His remarks mirrored a video posted alongside Garlinghouse’s announcement just the week before.
A Ripple spokesperson also chimed in to Decrypt, noting that the “timeline is completely in the SEC’s control,” adding it could take “several weeks” before the case is officially wrapped up.
