Ripple Labs says it settles with US SEC, will pay reduced $50 million fine

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ripple Labs agreed to settle a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil lawsuit over the alleged sale of unregistered securities and pay just $50 million of a previously imposed $125 million fine, the cryptocurrency company's chief legal officer said on Tuesday.

The accord would end one of the SEC's highest-profile cryptocurrency cases, as the regulator eases oversight of the industry.

Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty said in a post on X that the SEC would keep $50 million of the $125 million fine imposed in August by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan and now in escrow earning interest.

Alderoty said a settlement requires approval by the SEC and the judge. Ripple said there is no admission of wrongdoing.

The SEC declined to comment.

Ripple said last week that the SEC had ended its appeal of Torres' July 2023 decision that the XRP token sold by Ripple on public exchanges did not meet the legal definition of a security.

Ripple appealed another part of Torres' decision, which said that $728 million of XRP sales to institutional investors should have complied with securities laws. Alderoty said Ripple will end that appeal.

XRP is the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market value, trailing bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether, the market service CoinMarketCap said on Tuesday.

Since U.S. President Donald Trump's return to the White House, the SEC ended civil lawsuits against crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken.

The regulator also said it may resolve a civil fraud case against Chinese entrepreneur Justin Sun, an adviser to a Trump-backed crypto project.

Trump nominated Paul Atkins, a Washington lawyer considered supportive of the crypto industry, to chair the SEC. Atklns' U.S. Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Mark Porter)