August 8th is the official day marking the end of the long-running lawsuit between Ripple and the SEC after 4 years.
In the latest court filing, Judge Analisa Torres issued a judgment requiring Ripple to pay a fine of $125 million for violating federal securities laws through 1,278 institutional XRP sales.
The fine imposed on Ripple is 94% lower than the initial proposal by the SEC, which was more than $2 billion. The lawsuit was initiated four years ago when the SEC accused Ripple of illegally offering XRP securities in 2020 and profiting $1.3 billion.
Another important thing is that the judge affirmed that XRP is not a security. This will not affect Ripple’s ability to continue selling XRP to institutional investors, which they can do in the same way they have been doing since last July.
Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, has stated that this ruling is a significant victory for Ripple. He believes that the SEC’s pressure on XRP tokens has now been alleviated.
The SEC asked for $2B, and the Court reduced their demand by ~94% recognizing that they had overplayed their hand. We respect the Court’s decision and have clarity to continue growing our company.
This is a victory for Ripple, the industry and the rule of law. The SEC’s…
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) August 7, 2024
Lawyer Jeremy Hougan also agreed, stating that today would be a wonderful day for the Ripple community. Meanwhile, Mr. Stuart Alderoty, Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer, said that the company will respect the court’s decisions and is willing to pay a fine of $125 million.
In June of this year, Terraform Labs, the developer of LUNA – UST, had to pay a substantial fine of up to 4.5 billion USD after losing a lawsuit against the SEC. This further highlights the significance of Ripple’s victory for the crypto market.
Ripple’s XRP token price has increased by nearly 20% after the court’s decisions in the lawsuit and the trading volume has increased dramatically. XRP even rose to the top gainer on Binance, partly reflecting the impact of legal news on this project.
XRP Token currently boasts a market capitalization of approximately $34 billion and holds the position as the 5th most capitalized coin in the current crypto market, following BTC (Bitcoin), ETH (Ethereum), SOL (Solana), and BNB (BNB Chain).
The news has had a positive effect on the entire crypto market as it represents a new legal development. The price of BTC has also increased by more than 5% after retesting the support zone of $55,000 and is currently trading around $57,500.
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