A court has fined Ripple $125 million in a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), bringing to an end a four-year dispute.
According to data from CryptoSlate, the price of XRP rose 18% within minutes of the news breaking and is trading at $0.61 at press time.
Judge Analisa Torres of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has partially denied the SEC's petition for relief seeking more than $2 billion in damages from Ripple for selling XRP as an unregistered security.
According to the filing:
“The Court shall enter a final judgment enjoining Ripple from further violations of the securities laws and imposing a civil penalty of $125,035,150.”
The ruling came after the court granted partial summary judgment to the parties in July 2023. According to the filing, the court found that Ripple's sales of XRP to institutional investors constituted investment contracts and therefore violated securities laws.
However, the Court also ruled that Ripple's programmatic sales and other distributions of XRP do not meet the criteria for an investment contract under the Supreme Court's Howey test and therefore do not constitute securities sales.
Notably, the court analyzed Ripple's issuance of XRP and found that only 1,278 transactions violated Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933, 15 USC §77e(a) and (c). In the filing, the SEC suggested that each of Ripple's “1,700 related agreements” constituted a separate violation, the document states.
This is an ongoing story and will be updated as new information is gathered.
At time of writing 9:51 PM, August 7, 2024 (UTC)XRP ranks 7th by market cap and its price is rising. 19.63% As of the last 24 hours, XRP's market cap is $34.13 billion, with a 24-hour trading volume of $2.84 billion. Learn more about XRP ›
$0.61
19.63%
At time of writing 9:51 PM, August 7, 2024 (UTC)the entire cryptocurrency market is valued at $1.94 trillion with a 24-hour trading volume of $96.91 billion. Bitcoin dominance is currently at 55.94%. Learn more about the cryptocurrency market ›
Mentioned in this article
Gino Matos
Gino Matos is a law school graduate and a veteran journalist with six years of experience in the cryptocurrency industry. His expertise is mainly focused on the development of the Brazilian blockchain ecosystem and decentralized finance (DeFi).
Asaad Jaffrey
AJ has been a passionate journalist since the Arab Spring in Yemen in 2011, honing his skills around the world for over a decade. He specializes in financial journalism and currently focuses on reporting on cryptocurrencies.
