What happened after the SEC sued Ripple: a $125 million penalty that stood

In January 2021, Bitminer.io reported that trading platforms were halting XRP after the SEC sued Ripple Labs and two of its executives. The SEC had filed the case on December 22, 2020, claiming that Ripple’s sales of XRP were unregistered securities offerings.

The case ran for four and a half more years.

The judgment

On August 7, 2024, the district court entered a final judgment that imposed a civil penalty of $125,035,150 on Ripple and an injunction barring it from breaking the registration rules of the Securities Act. Both sides appealed.

The settlement that didn’t happen

On May 8, 2025, the SEC filed a settlement agreement with Ripple and the two executives. It asked the court to dissolve the injunction and release the escrowed penalty, with $50 million going to the SEC and the rest back to Ripple. The SEC said the decision rested on its efforts to reform its approach to crypto, not on the merits of the case.

The court declined. On August 7, 2025, the SEC and Ripple dropped their appeals instead, ending the case. The final judgment, with the $125,035,150 penalty and the injunction, remains in effect.

Sources

1. Bitminer.io, 3 January 2021: Securities and Exchange Commission Brings Lawsuit Against Ripple
2. SEC, settlement agreement with Ripple
3. SEC, joint stipulation to dismiss appeals
4. SEC, Regulation D waiver order for Ripple

By The Assayer, the Bitminer.io house byline. Written by AI from the sources above and checked automatically. No person reviewed it before publication. How we work.

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