The SEC and Ripple Labs today filed a motion seeking court approval for $50 million of the initially proposed $125 million settlement agreement to end their prolonged legal dispute and dissolve the current injunction against Ripple.
According to the agreement, the remaining $75 million will be returned to the company. The motion was filed with Judge Analisa Torres in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. This marks the official end of one of the most closely watched and protracted legal battles in the cryptocurrency industry.
Ripple emerges stronger as the legal cloud lifts and growth accelerates.
The case began in December 2020, when the SEC, under then-chairman Gary Gensler, accused Ripple of conducting unregistered securities offerings through its sales of XRP tokens.
Despite the legal battles, Ripple appears to be in a relatively stable financial position and is poised for growth. The agreement comes as Ripple benefits from a regulatory shift under President Trump's administration.
Last month, Ripple made a significant move by acquiring the prime brokerage firm Hidden Road for $1.2 billion and was reportedly in talks with Circle, the issuer of USDC, about a potential $5 billion acquisition, although that offer was rejected.
Now that the lawsuit is behind them and most of the fine is being returned, Ripple is expected to accelerate its acquisition strategy both in the U.S. and internationally.
The case has reinforced the stance that XRP is a commodity, not a security, which could pave the way for the approval of an XRP ETF.
Senior ETF analysts at Bloomberg said that the five spot XRP ETFs, including Grayscale, 21Shares, WisdomTree, Bitwise, Canary, and Franklin Templeton, have an 85% chance of approval following the leadership change at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
This is a significant improvement from its prediction more than two months ago that set the chances of XRP approval in 2025 at 65%.
Similarly, the betting odds for the approval of an XRP ETF before December 31 now stand at 77% on Polymarket.
Ripple's ties with U.S. regulators also seem to be strengthening. While rumors circulated today that President Trump was misled into backing XRP as part of a national cryptocurrency reserve, Ripple's lobbying efforts with the administration are well documented. The company's proactive engagement with policymakers is now bearing fruit.
XRP soars as investors bet on the final approval of the SEC agreement.
XRP, Ripple's native cryptocurrency, jumped over 10% in early Thursday trading following news that Ripple and the U.S. SEC filed a joint request for a summary judgment to conclude their long legal dispute.
At the time of writing, XRP is trading around $2.28, a 7% increase just 24 hours prior. While the price has slightly corrected since the announcement, the
spike was strong enough to break $2.3 today.
