Ripple Ordered To Pay $125 Million Penalty In SEC Lawsuit

Blockchain payments firm Ripple has been ordered by Judge Analisa Torres to pay a civil penalty of $125,035,150 in the long-drawn lawsuit with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This landmark ruling marks a conclusion to the months of speculation in which many predicted an imminent settlement.

Ripple Lawsuit Ruling: What Next Now?

After much delay in the XRP lawsuit ruling, Judge Torres issued the penalty after discovering that 1,278 institutional sale transactions by Ripple Labs violated securities law. Noteworthy, the judge last year ruled that XRP is not security, giving the company a partial victory against the SEC. The ruling from last year involved programmatic sales of XRP to retail clients through exchanges. The penalty ruling today borders on the direct sale of XRP to institutional clients.

Even the Commission made attempts to appeal Judge Torres’ July 13 ruling but it never pulled through. The new verdict came as a result of more investigations into the company operation. In addition to the fine, the judge imposed an injunction against future securities law violations.

As one of the high-profile legal battles in the past three years, this remedy’s ruling came at the right time with Ripple Labs‘ growing its business overseas. The ordered payment is lower than the $1 billion in disgorgement and prejudgment interest and $900 million in civil penalty payment the SEC demanded for violation of the Federal Securities law as company sold XRP to institutional investors.

Although it is still bigger than the $10 million Ripple Labs argued it would pay, to observers, this is a fair ruling with growing speculations on what might come next. In the meantime, it is not yet clear the next line of action that the company would adopt. However, the both parties have not signaled any intent to appeal the verdict in the remedies phase, experts believe appeals may come next month.

RLUSD Stablecoin Likely to Go Under SEC Radar

There is another potential lawsuit brewing between the blockchain payment firm and the regulator. This time around, it has nothing to do with XRP but with Ripple’s upcoming USD-pegged stablecoin RLUSD.

Popular lawyer Fred Rispoli offered his take on the matter. He highlighted how “any issues the SEC has with $RLUSD is for another lawsuit and cannot be bootstrapped to one that is about to end!”

With this projection still speculative for now, the community is reeling from the potential impact of this recent ruling. However, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse is upbeat on growing business opportunities including with RLUSD stabecoin.