The SEC has dismissed or paused several other legal cases and investigations targeting crypto companies since US President Donald Trump took office and pledged to end crypto regulation by enforcement
Published Fri, May 9, 2025 · 11:36 AM
[WASHINGTON] The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) moved to settle a long-running legal battle against Ripple Labs as the regulator continues its about-face on crypto cases.
The SEC and the blockchain infrastructure company will jointly ask a federal court in Manhattan to dissolve an injunction against Ripple and release more than US$125 million in civil penalties in an escrow account, according to a settlement agreement filed on Thursday (May 8). Of that, US$50 million would go to the SEC and the rest would be returned to Ripple, the SEC said.
The SEC said its decision to seek an end to the case “rests on its judgment that such resolution will facilitate the commission’s ongoing efforts to reform and renew its regulatory approach to the crypto industry, not on any assessment of the merits of the claims alleged in the action”.
The Wall Street regulator sued Ripple Labs in December 2020, alleging the firm broke securities laws by selling its digital token without registering it as a security.
The agency had sought almost US$2 billion in penalties, but the court found that its XRP token was covered by securities laws only when sold to institutional investors, a ruling hailed as a victory in the crypto industry. In August, a judge ordered Ripple to pay US$125 million, a fraction of what the SEC originally sought.
SEC commissioner Caroline Crenshaw dissented from the settlement offer, saying it undermined the court order.
“This settlement, alongside the programmatic disassembly of the SEC’s crypto enforcement programme, does a tremendous disservice to the investing public and undermines the court’s role in interpreting our securities laws,” she said.
The SEC has dismissed or paused several other legal cases and investigations targeting crypto companies since US President Donald Trump took office and pledged to end crypto regulation by enforcement. Dropped cases include high-profile lawsuits against exchanges Coinbase Global and Binance Holdings.
In March, Ripple chief executive officer Brad Garlinghouse said the firm spent US$150 million defending itself against the regulator. BLOOMBERG
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