SEC to Seek $2 Billion From Ripple Labs, Says Chief Legal Officer

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will seek $2 billion in penalties from Ripple, the fintech firm’s chief legal officer has announced. 

Stuart Alderoty said on Twitter Monday that the top regulator will seek the fine from a judge—with the details held for another day. 

“As you will see when the SEC’s brief is made public tomorrow, they ask the Judge for $2B in fines and penalties,” he wrote. 

The SEC and Ripple, whose founders created the cryptocurrency XRP, have been locked in a legal battle since 2020. 

The regulator hit the fintech company with a $1.3 billion lawsuit, alleging that it sold unregistered securities in the form of XRP, now the sixth biggest cryptocurrency by market cap. 

But last year, Ripple scored a partial win against the SEC when a judge ruled that programmatic sales of XRP to retail investors—tokens bought and sold on cryptocurrency exchanges—did not qualify as securities transactions.

Despite the judge saying that $728 million worth of contracts for institutional sales did constitute unregistered securities sales, investors and Ripple Labs interpreted the partial ruling as a win for the broader crypto industry.

Decrypt reached out to both the SEC and Ripple for comment but did not immediately hear back.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.