XRP rose more than 27% in the 24 hours after a judge issued a long-awaited order in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) lawsuit against Ripple Labs.
In an order filed Wednesday, District Judge Analisa Torres imposed a $125 million civil penalty on the San Francisco-based payments company.
In March, the SEC asked the court to order Ripple to pay a total of $1.95 billion for disgorgement, prejudgment interest and a civil penalty.
Ripple’s lawyers argued that $10 million would reflect an appropriate percentage of the company’s actual gross revenues from pre-complaint institutional sales.
Torres denied the SEC’s request for disgorgement and prejudgment interest, but greenlighted a smaller civil penalty.
The judge’s order was hailed as a victory by both sides: Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the XRP community had finally escaped “the SEC’s headwinds.”
“The SEC asked for $2 billion, and the Court reduced their demand by ~94% because they recognized that they had overplayed their hand. We respect the Court’s decision and have clarity to continue growing our business.
This is a victory for Ripple, the industry and the rule of law.”
An SEC spokeswoman emphasized to Fox Business that Ripple was ordered to pay more than the company requested.
“The Court granted the SEC’s request for remedies, including an order prohibiting Ripple from committing further violations of the securities laws and significant civil penalties totaling more than 12 times the amount Ripple deemed appropriate.”
XRP skyrocketed from trading around $0.502 on Wednesday to a high of $0.639 on Thursday. The seventh-ranked crypto asset by market capitalization has a price of $0.613 at the time of writing.
The SEC first sued the San Francisco-based payments company in late 2020 for allegedly selling XRP as an unregistered security.
Last year, Torres ruled that Ripple’s automated, open-market sale of XRP did not constitute a security offering, contrary to what the SEC claimed.
However, the judge sided with the SEC’s contention that Ripple’s direct sales of XRP to institutional buyers were securities offerings.
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