Ripple is expected to pay the SEC a $50 million fine for violating federal securities laws, so the company’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, suggests that the payment could be XRP.
Garlinghouse made the suggestion in a recent interview with Fox Business’s Claman Countdown.
Ripple can pay SEC fines with XRP
During the interview, he revealed how Ripple would pay the agreed $50 million fine to the SEC. Remember, in August 2024, Judge Analisa Torres ordered Ripple to pay $125 million in fines to provide XRP to institutional customers without registering for US sales.
In particular, last year, Ripple complied with this order. However, they deposited the entire $125 million in their interest accounts, waiting for the parties’ appeal to be resolved.
Following the SEC’s recent policy shift in which regulators rejected most of their crypto-related enforcement actions, agents have reached an agreement with Ripple to drop the attack on the company.
According to Ripple, the SEC will remove the appeal without a condition, but will dismiss the mutual appeal with a reduction in the $50 million fine and a permanent injunction.
Interestingly, Ripple revealed that as many people expect, the parties even discussed paying fines in XRP rather than USD. However, he did not say whether the SEC agreed to the proposal.
At the time of press, the XRP, which is equivalent to a fine of $50 million, is 2463 million XRP based on its current value of $2.03 per coin.
The terms of the settlement, including the potential payment of the XRP $50 million fine, requires committee approval. The SEC Commissioner is expected to vote for the decision during the internal closure meeting.
Will Ripple’s $50 million fine be added to the digital asset stockpile?
In the meantime, the possibility that Ripple would pay an SEC fine on XRP raised several questions. Specifically, some investors quizzed whether the $50 million fine from XRP would automatically be added to the US digital asset stockpile.
Last month, President Trump ordered the creation of a Bitcoin-only reserve and digital asset stockpile that includes altcoins. Before the order, Trump mentioned XRP in a code that could be included in the Digital Asset Stockpiling Initiative.
However, the executive order revealed that funds obtained through civil and criminal forfeiture will be used to fund the reserve. This is part of an effort to ensure that reserve initiatives are not charged one-to-one taxpayers.
The US government currently has over $16 billion in crypto in blockchain wallets that hold forfeited assets. The portfolio includes top cryptos such as BTC, ETH, USDT, and BNB.
However, XRP is not in the government’s codes. Based on Ripple’s argument with the SEC about paying a $50 million fine with XRP, the US government was ultimately able to have XRP coins for its digital asset stockpile.
It remains to be seen whether the SEC will accept the XRP $50 million fine, or whether the government will include funds in its digital asset stockpile.
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