Ripple Labs May Be Preparing to End Its Enforcement Action Against Ripple Labs After More Than Four Years

The US Securities and Exchange Commission may be preparing to end its enforcement action against Ripple Labs after more than four years.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission may be preparing to end its more-than-four-year-long enforcement action against Ripple Labs after the parties filed an appeal and cross-appeal, respectively, over a $125 million judgment in August, Fox Business reports.

According to a March 12 X post from the news outlet’s Eleanor Terrett, the agency’s case against Ripple was “in the process of wrapping up” after the parties filed an appeal and cross-appeal, respectively.

The SEC filed suit against Ripple in December 2020, alleging that the blockchain firm and certain executives used XRP (XRPUSD) as an unregistered security to raise funds.

After a lengthy discovery process and several court victories for the crypto firm, Judge Analisa Torres ruled largely in favor of Ripple in July 2024. The judge said the SEC failed to meet its burden of proof that the Stellar (XLM) and Lumens (XLM) tokens were sold as securities.

The case is still pending appeal by both parties. The SEC is appealing Judge Torres’s ruling on the registration of the XRP token and portions of the judgment on the scope of the administrative law judge. Meanwhile, Ripple is appealing the lower court’s decision on the $125 million judgment awarded to the agency for its purported violations.

The case is one of the first significant rulings to favor the crypto industry. Judge Torres stated that the XRP token was not a security under the regulator’s purview — but only in regard to programmatic sales on exchanges.

At the time of publication, no filing suggesting the SEC intended to drop the case appeared on the docket for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York or the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.