Ripple, SEC End Fight: XRP Lawsuit Settled After 4 Years

Ripple and SEC End Fight: XRP Lawsuit Finally Settled After 4 Years

Written by Aaron S.,

Editor-In-Chief

Last Updated: August 11, 2025

Key Takeaways

Ripple and the SEC ended their legal dispute by jointly dropping all appeals on August 7, which closed a case that began in 2020;
Ripple will pay a $125 million fine to the US Treasury, but restrictions on institutional XRP sales will stay in place;
A 2023 ruling found some XRP sales violated securities laws, though others did not.

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On August 7, the long-running legal fight between Ripple Labs and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officially ended.

The SEC and Ripple sent a joint request to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to dismiss their cases. The court approved the request and confirmed that each party would cover its own legal fees.

Ripple’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, shared the news on X, "Following the Commission’s vote today, the SEC and Ripple formally filed directly with the Second Circuit to dismiss their appeals".

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The lawsuit started in 2020 when the SEC accused Ripple and two of its executives of selling XRP XRP $2.94 tokens without proper registration. However, Ripple argued that XRP is not a security.

In April, the SEC and Ripple asked the court to pause the appeals, and in May, they proposed a resolution. That included Ripple agreeing to pay a $125 million penalty, which has been placed in escrow.

However, Judge Analisa Torres chose not to ease the restrictions placed on Ripple’s institutional XRP sales. She said the company still had to follow securities laws, even as the SEC's overall enforcement approach appeared to shift.

Now that the appeals have been dropped, the $125 million fine will be moved to the US Treasury. A court order limiting Ripple’s large-scale XRP sales to institutions will remain in place.

Meanwhile, on August 6, Roman Storm was convicted of operating an unlicensed money transfer business and was sentenced to five years. How did the case unfold? Read the full story.