Ripple Labs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have officially achieved a deal that would end a long-standing legal battle if approved by a judge.
The parties agreed to a $50 million penalty, according to a settlement agreement filed in New York on Thursday. That’s a small portion of the $125 million fine originally imposed by Judge Anasa Torres of the Southern District of New York (SDNY) last year, as well as the huge $20 billion fines requested by the SEC.
In a 2023 ruling, Judge Torres found that Ripple violated the securities law when selling native XRP tokens to institutional investors, but did not violate the securities law for investing XRP in exchanges for retail customers filed in 2020 under then General Chair Jay Clayton (now the general president of the Southern New York president).
The SEC sought Torres’ ruling under the leadership of former chairman Gary Gensler, urging Ripple to cross appeal. Under the settlement agreement, the parties agree to withdraw the lawsuit. By filing on Thursday, Ripple’s announcement in March confirmed that it has reached a principled settlement agreement with the SEC.
Read more: Ripple wins $75 million court-ordered fine from the SEC and drops cross appeal
The settlement comes amid a full-scale setback of the SEC from many crypto investigations and litigation that began under Gensler’s tenure. The agency has made a face on crypto-regulation regulation after US President Donald Trump took office in January and appointed crypto-friendly Paul Atkins to serve as the new SEC chairman.
XRP rose 9% in news, continuing its 24-hour value growth.
Ripple did not respond to Coindesk’s request for comment.
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