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Judge Analisa Torres stated that the case “does not involve allegations of fraud, misappropriation, or other more culpable conduct” by Ripple. The judge reduced penalty by 94% from the SEC’s demand of $2 billion.
On Wednesday, August 7, a federal judge asked Ripple Labs to pay a civil penalty of $125 million for violating the securities laws with the XRP sales to institutional investors. Interestingly, this penalty is only a fraction of the $2 billion demanded by the US SEC in the ongoing XRP lawsuit. Thus, this development was enough to send XRP price surging over 20% shooting past $0.60.
Furthermore, in the ruling on Wednesday, US District Judge Analisa Torres stated that the lawsuit doesn’t include any claims of fraud. Last year, Torres had ruled that the XRP sales to institutional investors are subject to securities laws, and not the sale to retail investors.
The Judge also added that the case “does not involve allegations of fraud, misappropriation, or other more culpable conduct” while adding that the SEC didn’t prove Ripple’s failure to register the sales with the agency leading to substantial losses to investors.
Ripple CEO Calls It a Victory
Commenting on the development on the X platform, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said that the court reduced the SEC’s penalty demand by a massive 94% while adding that the SEC “overplayed its hand”. He also called this decision a “victory for Ripple, the industry, and the rule of law” while asserting that “the SEC’s headwinds against the whole of the XRP community are gone”.
Ripple’s general counsel, Stuart Alderoty, stated that they are glad to have this case finally behind them. He also stated that the company would pay off the penalty from its balance sheet. “Hopefully this signals the end of this administration’s war on crypto. We need a better way forward for this industry and this country,” said Alderoty.
However, the Judge has issued an injunction to Ripple barring the blockchain firm from committing any further violations of securities laws.
XRP Price Surge amid Whale Activity
The XRP price saw massive gains surging past over 20% and currently trading around $0.60. However, XRP faced a rejection at $0.65 where it failed to break out further after a rally in July last month. Thus, $0.65 remains a crucial resistance for XRP to continue its rally ahead.
📈 XRP's market cap has skyrocketed once again, growing by +23% in the past 24 hours. Wallets holding between 1M-10M coins on the XRP Ledger now hold an all-time high 7.06B coins ($4.42B), and the project's social media discussions are at their highest levels since January. pic.twitter.com/QjEzIZGQAJ
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) August 7, 2024
However, it seems that the whale support is pretty strong at this stage with wallet between 1-10 million XRP coins having the highest holdings worth $4.42 billion.
