The multi-year legal battle between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple Labs has officially come to an end, with Ripple agreeing to pay a $50 million fine to settle allegations of securities law violations.
🚨JUST IN: @Ripple has agreed to drop its appeal against the @SECGov and pay $50M of the originally ordered $125M fine. The SEC will also ask Judge Torres to lift the ‘obey the law’ injunction she imposed on Ripple in addition to the fine.
Once all of this has been voted on by… https://t.co/pTHZefBsEp
— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) March 25, 2025
Once this is voted on by the Commission and all court documents are finalized, the SEC vs. Ripple saga will officially be over, once and for all.
The SEC originally sought $125 million in penalties from Ripple, but under the final agreement, Ripple will pay $50 million and recover the remaining $75 million. The SEC has also stated it will petition the court to lift the longstanding injunction that restricted Ripple from selling XRP to institutional investors.
This move effectively clears the path for Ripple to resume large-scale XRP sales to financial institutions, a core part of its business model. The ruling could also provide clarity to other blockchain projects currently navigating the murky waters of regulatory compliance.
The lawsuit began in December 2020, when the SEC accused Ripple of raising over $1.3 billion through the sale of XRP tokens without registering them as securities. Ripple has long maintained that XRP is a currency, not a security, and argued that the SEC’s approach was inconsistent and harmful to innovation.
Throughout the legal battle, Ripple received partial victories in court. In July 2023, a federal judge ruled that XRP sales on public exchanges did not constitute securities transactions, a landmark decision seen as a win for the crypto industry.
For Ripple, this means regaining the freedom to sell XRP to institutional clients, a key revenue stream, while avoiding further litigation risk. For the broader crypto industry, this resolution may set a precedent for future enforcement actions and provide much-needed regulatory clarity. And for the SEC, it secures a sizable penalty while closing one of its most high-profile crypto cases without going to full trial.
Following news of the settlement, XRP saw a modest uptick in value, reflecting investor optimism about Ripple’s restored ability to operate freely in the U.S. institutional market.
While the Ripple case may be closed, the broader regulatory debate over how to classify and govern digital assets in the U.S. is far from over. Industry leaders and lawmakers continue to push for comprehensive crypto legislation that would define the roles of the SEC, CFTC, and other regulatory bodies.
Still, Ripple’s resolution with the SEC may signal a shift toward more constructive engagement between regulators and blockchain firms moving forward.
