- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has agreed to drop its appeal against Ripple without conditions
- Ripple has withdrawn its cross-appeal, concluding the remedies phase
- The SEC will retain $50 million of the original $125 million fine, with the rest returned to Ripple
The long-running legal battle between Ripple Labs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)appears to be nearing its final chapter. Both sides have agreed to withdraw their respective appeals, and Ripple will recover most of the $125 million it had set aside for penalties, a deal which, pending final formalities, marks the closing of one of the most closely watched cases in crypto history. The case, now more than four years old, ended this month when the SEC informed Ripple that it would not be pursuing its appeal following its 2023 loss as part of the new administration’s more constructive approach.
Appeals Dropped, Case Closed
Stuart Alderoty, Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer, revealed last week that the SEC was planning to drop its case, and he confirmed this on X yesterday, calling it “what should be my last update on SEC v Ripple ever”:
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
Alderoty informed readers that both sides have dropped their respective appeals and that the agency will ask the court to lift an injunction placed on Ripple by the court earlier in proceedings. This means that bar a few procedural matters, the SEC’s case is officially done and Ripple has won.
Four-Year Battle Coming to an End
The two parties had been entangled in litigation since December 2020, when the SEC accused Ripple of conducting an unregistered securities offering by selling its native token, XRP. The case became a touchstone for the broader regulatory fight over the status of digital assets in the U.S. In a partial victory for Ripple in July 2023, Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP sales on exchanges did not constitute securities transactions — a major setback for the SEC’s broader strategy.
As part of the final agreement, Ripple will forfeit $50 million of the $125 million penalty originally proposed by the SEC; the funds had already been placed in escrow and will now be partially returned. While the settlement must still pass through standard procedural steps, it effectively brings to an end one of the most significant crypto enforcement actions to date. For Ripple, it represents vindication after years of legal wrangling, while for the SEC, it marks a quiet close to a case that tested (an ultimately showed that it had extended) its regulatory reach. As Alderoty put it succinctly: “That’s all folks!”
