After what possibly seemed like an eternity for the folks at Ripple and traders of XRP – the token that was at the center of the blockchain company’s years-long courtroom standoff with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the wait is finally over.
Indeed, District Judge Analisa Torres has issued a final judgment in the Ripple v. SEC case, ordering Ripple to pay $125 million penalty for the institutional XRP sales, according to the documents shared by defense attorney and popular commentator on the case, James K. Filan, in X posts on August 7.
Ripple’s institutional sales penalty – fragment of SEC’s demands
As it happens, this penalty is much lower than the whopping $2 billion in disgorgement demanded by the regulator, which many in the cryptocurrency community, including legal expert Bill Morgan and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, criticized as overreaching and scare tactics, trying to punish and intimidate the industry.
In terms of timing, Ripple has 30 days after the final judgment’s entry to pay the above civil penalty to the securities watchdog and can do so electronically, directly from a bank account through the SEC website, by certified check, bank cashier’s check, or U.S. postal money order.
Furthermore:
“To preserve the deterrent effect of the civil penalty, Defendant shall not further benefit by, offset or reduction of any award of compensatory damages in any Related Investor Action by the amount of any part of Defendant’s payment of a civil penalty in this action.”
Abstaining from future violations
Furthermore, the court prohibits Ripple from “violating Section 5 of the Securities Act by, directly or indirectly, in the absence of any applicable exemption.” Judge Torres said that she wasn’t making a judgment that Ripple had violated any laws after the SEC filed the lawsuit. However:
“Rather, the Court finds that Ripple’s willingness to push the boundaries of the Order evinces a likelihood that it will eventually (if it has not already) cross the line. (…) On balance, the Court finds that there is a reasonable probability of future violations, meriting the issuance of an injunction.”
In other words, the Judge’s order of motion for remedies forces Ripple to file a registration statement with the SEC if it plans to sell any securities to the public, in addition to the document listing the ways in which the agency should prove that the blockchain company has violated the said law.
Elsewhere, the positive Ripple news and XRP news expectedly led to a massive 17.92% XRP price jump on the day, pushing the crypto asset over the psychologically important price threshold of $0.60 and reducing its loss across the past week to 1.91% while adding up to the monthly advance of 39.42%, as per data on August 8.
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