In a Monday social media post, Ripple Labs' chief legal officer stated the SEC is seeking $2 billion in fines and penalties for selling XRP.
Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty posted on X that the regulator has requested Manhattan U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres for the penalty in sealed court papers. The SEC planned to release the redacted materials on Tuesday. "Rather than faithfully apply the law, the SEC remains bent on wanting to punish and intimidate Ripple - and the industry at large," he stated.
In July, Torres found that the blockchain startup sold $728.9 million of XRP to hedge funds and other skilled bidders was illegal unregistered securities sales. In 2020, the SEC sued Ripple, CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and co-founder Chris Larsen for selling XRP in an unregistered securities offering to raise over $1.3 billion.
In October, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decided to withdraw its outstanding charges against Garlinghouse and Larsen. Due to the fact that it is one of the most significant cases brought by the SEC in the cryptocurrency industry, the case has received a lot of attention.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was able to win the lawsuit in part; however, Torres gave the regulator a high-profile loss when she found that XRP Ripple that was offered on public cryptocurrency exchanges did not fulfill the legal definition of a security.
In the meanwhile, Torres did not grant the SEC's request to overturn that finding while the matter is still being heard. However, once the judge has made a decision about the regulator's request for penalties, the regulator may file an appeal.
Several other cryptocurrency businesses, including prominent exchanges Coinbase and Binance, which are also facing lawsuits from the SEC, have cited Torres' decision in an effort to persuade other judges to dismiss the charges made by the agency.
Despite the fact that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has portrayed the majority of cryptocurrencies as another type of investment that has been categorized as securities for decades, the cryptocurrency sector has contended that securities rules do not apply to digital assets and has advocated for new laws and regulations.
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