By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it ended its case accusing Ripple Labs of selling unregistered securities, leaving a $125 million fine intact and ending one of the cryptocurrency industry’s highest-profile lawsuits.
Ripple and the SEC agreed on Thursday to dismiss their appeals of the fine imposed by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan and her injunction against the sale of Ripple’s XRP token to institutional investors.
XRP is the third-largest cryptocurrency by market value, trailing bitcoin and Ethereum, according to the market service CoinMarketCap.
The SEC sued Ripple in December 2020, near the end of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first White House term, accusing it of selling XRP tokens without registering them as securities.
In a mixed ruling in July 2023, Torres said XRP was covered by securities laws when sold to institutional investors, while XRP that Ripple sold on public exchanges was not. She imposed the fine in August 2024.
Following Trump’s reelection, a more crypto-friendly SEC began retreating from some enforcement cases, and together with Ripple asked Torres to lift the injunction and reduce the fine to $50 million.
She refused, saying neither side came close to showing “exceptional circumstances” that outweighed the public interest in enforcing the injunction and $125 million fine.
The SEC said the dismissal of the appeals means the injunction and fine remain in effect.
Stuart Alderoty, Ripple’s chief legal officer, in a post on X referred to the SEC’s actions and said the dismissals mark “the end” of the case.
Since Trump reentered the White House, the SEC has also ended civil lawsuits against crypto exchanges Binance, Coinbase and Kraken.
The case is SEC v Ripple Labs Inc, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 20-10832.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Joe Bavier)
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