The long-running legal battle between Ripple Labs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seems to finally be near an end, with Ripple emerging victorious. The SEC will return the lion’s share of the $125 million-court ordered fine paid by Ripple last year, according to a Tuesday X post from Ripple’s chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty, keeping just $50 million and returning the $75 million balance to Ripple. The proposed settlement, which is subject to commissioner and court approval, comes just a week after the SEC agreed to drop its appeal of U.S. District Court judge Analisa Torres’ 2023 ruling that Ripple’s programmatic sales of XRP to retail exchanges did not violate federal securities laws. Torres found that only Ripple’s institutional sales violated securities laws, ordering Ripple to pay the $125 million fine. Though hefty, the fine was a mere fraction of the nearly $2 billion in civil penalties, disgorgement and prejudgement interest the SEC initially requested. As part of the pending settlement agreement, Ripple has agreed to drop its cross-appeal of the SEC’s appeal. Alderoty also said that the SEC will ask the court to lift the standard injunction imposed against Ripple. XRP jumped 1.5% higher in the minutes following the news before paring some of the gains, changing hands at around $2.47 recently. The token was down 0.5% over the past 24 hours, in line with bitcoin (BTC) and the broader crypto market benchmark CoinDesk 20 Index's performance. A representative for the SEC did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment. — Krisztian Sandor contributed reporting.
