XRP Lawsuit: SEC Asks Judge Torres To Adopt Settlement Agreement

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple have taken another step in their long-running legal battle as they look to put the XRP lawsuit to bed.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple have taken another step in their long-running legal battle as they look to put the XRP lawsuit to bed. This time, the Commission has filed a settlement letter, asking Judge Analisa Torres to set aside her judgment against the crypto firm.

SEC Asks Judge Torres To Adopt Settlement Agreement

In a court filing on Wednesday, the SEC requested an indicative ruling from Judge Torres pursuant to its settlement agreement with Ripple. As part of the ruling, the Commission asked that the Court dissolve the injunction it awarded against Ripple in the final judgment.

Furthermore, the agency asked that Judge Torres order the release of the $125 million penalty ordered against Ripple from escrow. The SEC would receive $50 million in satisfaction of the monetary judgment, while Ripple would receive the remaining sum.

As CoinGape reported earlier, the Appeal Court had granted the SEC and Ripple’s joint motion to suspend proceedings in the appeal case, while they applied for this indicative ruling from Judge Torres in order to finalize the settlement agreement.

Once Judge Torres agrees to grant the demands as requested, both parties will ask the Court of Appeals for a limited remand to be able to apply for these specific reliefs from the District Court.

Upon a grant of this limited remand, the SEC and Ripple will then move to file motions and other necessary documents in the District Court to request that the Court grant the relief. Once the District Court enters these orders, both the SEC and Ripple will file to dismiss their appeal and cross-appeal, respectively, in the case.

The agency and the crypto firm have been engaged in a legal dispute since December 2020, when the SEC sued Ripple for allegedly conducting an unregistered securities offering of its XRP token. After a seven-week trial in April, Judge Torres ruled in part for the SEC and in part for Ripple.

Specifically, Judge Torres said that the SEC failed to sufficiently prove that Ripple had sufficient fair notice that its XRP sales were subject to registration. However, she also ruled that the SEC could nonetheless seek summary judgment on Count III of its complaint, which concerned direct sales of XRP to institutional investors.

Both parties later appealed Judge Torres’s ruling to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. However, they later applied for a stay in the appeal case so that they could try to reach a settlement agreement.

Earlier this month, the Appeal Court granted this request and put a hold on the appeal case. Both parties will now continue their efforts to finalize the settlement agreement and apply for this final ruling from Judge Analisa Torres.