SEC and Ripple Settle, Ending Legal Battle with $75M Recovery for Ripple

After over three years of legal wrangling, the Ripple vs. SEC case is officially coming to an end. Last week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) agreed to drop its appeal against Ripple without conditions.

Now, Ripple has followed suit, withdrawing its cross-appeal, as confirmed by Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer, Stuart Alderoty, on X on Tuesday.

However, this settlement requires a final Commission vote, standard court procedures, and the drafting of legal documents, but the outcome is now clear: this case is closing for good.

Ripple-SEC Settlement: $50M Paid, XRP Institutional Sales May Resume

The final crossing of t’s and dotting of i’s – and what should be my last update on SEC v Ripple ever…

Last week, the SEC agreed to drop its appeal without conditions. @Ripple has now agreed to drop its cross-appeal. The SEC will keep $50M of the $125M fine (already in an…

— Stuart Alderoty (@s_alderoty) March 25, 2025

According to the settlement, Ripple is set to retain $75 million from the initial $125 million fine imposed by the SEC. The remaining $50 million will be retained by the SEC, having already been placed in an interest-bearing escrow account in cash.

Beyond the financial settlement, one of the resulting developments in this agreement is the potential reversal of previous restrictions on Ripple selling XRP to institutional investors. Alderoty said the agency will request that the court lift the standard injunction currently in place.

This restriction, a key ruling in 2024, significantly impacted XRP’s market liquidity and institutional adoption.

Now, with the SEC reportedly lifting this mandate, Ripple may regain access to major institutional investors, which could boost liquidity, secure new partnerships, and strengthen the case for an XRP-based Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF).

This breakthrough could influence XRP’s designation as a commodity rather than a security, aligning with Ripple’s long-standing arguments and U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres’s decision, which found that XRP is “not necessarily a security on its face,” especially within the context of programmatic sales to unknown buyers.

Ripple-SEC Case Exposes Regulatory Failures and Costly Legal Battle

While this marks the end of an era, it also serves as a case study in the inefficiencies of regulation by enforcement. When the SEC first sued Ripple in 2020, it sought to classify XRP as an unregistered security.

But after over three years of litigation, hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees, and countless market disruptions, the case has largely left Ripple in the same position it was when the lawsuit began.

A crypto journalist, Eleanor Terret, said, “Between legal fees and fines, Ripple has spent somewhere between $150 million and $200 million in this fight.”

“And what has been achieved? The SEC spent taxpayer dollars on an enforcement action that left us with no clearer regulatory framework for the industry.”

🚨JUST IN: @Ripple has agreed to drop its appeal against the @SECGov and pay $50M of the originally ordered $125M fine. The SEC will also ask Judge Torres to lift the ‘obey the law’ injunction she imposed on Ripple in addition to the fine.

Once all of this has been voted on by… https://t.co/pTHZefBsEp

— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) March 25, 2025

Eleanor Terret also argues that SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s enforcement-first approach has done more harm than good.

She said instead of focusing on clear-cut fraud cases like FTX, Celsius, or 3AC, the SEC spent years pursuing a case against Ripple that has ultimately resulted in a minor fine and no major changes to how XRP operates.