SEC’s Long-Running Case Against Ripple Officially Over

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s 2020 lawsuit against Ripple Labs is officially over, after the two parties informed the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that they were voluntarily dismissing their respective appeals of a 2023 ruling in the case.

The SEC and Ripple will each bear their own costs, the filing said on Thursday. The joint stipulation ends the legal battle between the SEC and Ripple which began in 2020 after the SEC sued Ripple in 2020 under former Chair Jay Clayton (who now runs the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York) alleging it violated securities laws through the sale of XRP, the token closely associated with the company.

XRP jumped 5% after Thursday’s filing, trading around $3.27 as of press time.

The SEC filed an appeal in 2024 after a district judge’s ruling in 2023 said that Ripple making XRP available to retail traders through exchanges, while Ripple cross-appealed to maintain its arguments in the case.

The parties agreed to drop their respective appeals in June, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said at the time, leaving District Judge Analisa Torres’ penalties in place. These penalties were tied to her finding that Ripple had violated securities laws in selling XRP to institutional traders, and included $125 million in fines and a permanent injunction against further violations of the law.

Ripple and the SEC paused their appeals earlier this year after Donald Trump retook office as U.S. president and installed new leadership at the agency. The SEC has dropped over a dozen cases and investigations into crypto companies in the last few months.

The parties attempted to negotiate these penalties down, but multiple attempts were rejected by Judge Torres over procedural and other concerns.