Ripple and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have reached an agreement that provides for the completion of a long-running legal battle between the company and the regulator.
The process of what can be described in a certain sense as a legal confrontation began after the SEC stated that the mentioned firm was offering unregistered securities. Last week, the media published information that the regulator agreed to drop its appeal without conditions. Now Ripple has agreed to withdraw its cross-appeal. The company’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, posted a message of relevant content on the social media platform X on Tuesday, March 25. It was also noted that the SEC will retain $50 million of the previously imposed $125 million fine. These funds are already held in an escrow account. This was reported by Stuart Alderoty. The remaining balance will be returned to the company.
Moreover, Stuart Alderoty said that the regulator will request that the court lift the standard injunction currently in place.
The resolution remains subject to a formal commission vote, finalization of legal documentation, and standard court procedures. After this is completed, the case will be closed in full.
A spokesperson for the SEC did not respond to a media request for comment on the deal between Ripple and the regulator.
The agreement reached by the parties to the process is the end of a carefully watched legal battle that began in December 2020. At that time, the SEC accused the company of being involved in the practice of conducting an unregistered securities offering through sales of XRP. It is worth noting that this case has become a landmark and, in a certain sense, fundamental as a reflection of several processes related to how the US regulatory system interacts with the virtual finance space. The mentioned legal battle became a kind of test of how the laws of the United States apply to digital assets during the tenure of outgoing SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.
The virtual finance space is an innovative environment. At the same time, the legal system belongs to the category of what can be called the territory of more conservative concepts and approaches. At the same time, the digital asset industry is rapidly scaling, against the background of which regulators cannot pretend that nothing is happening or act through unequivocal prohibitions.
Also, the agreement between the SEC and Ripple is an illustrative example in the context of the consistent change in Washington’s approach to regulating cryptocurrencies.
It is worth noting that many experts and representatives of the virtual currency industry had high hopes for the return of the President of the United States Donald Trump to the White House in January. The corresponding optimistic expectations are concerned primarily with the transformation of regulatory practices. These hopes have already been partially fulfilled. In the context of the relevant statement, it is worth mentioning that after the inauguration of Donald Trump, the SEC has scaled back its enforcement efforts, dropping civil lawsuits against exchanges Coinbase and Kraken. This is a signal of a likely resolution in the fraud case against crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun.
Currently, regulatory practices in the United States are gradually becoming more conciliatory. In this case, there is a realization of an aspiration aimed at achieving a balance between investor protection and support for innovation in the digital asset sector. For the crypto industry, this means an easing of legal rules.
As we have reported earlier, Ripple and Unicâmbio to Power Brazil-to-Portugal Payments.
