Crypto exchange Ripple should pay more than $2 billion in penalties for selling its token, XRP, to institutional investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a court brief made public Tuesday.
The penalty comes in connection with a case the SEC arguably lost. The regulator sued Ripple in 2020, asserting the $1.4 billion in XRP sales the exchange had logged to that point amounted to unregistered securities.
U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres disagreed, in part, ruling in July that XRP is a security only when it’s sold to institutional investors — not to the general public. That put Ripple on the hook for $728.9 million in unlicensed securities sales but not for the remaining $757 million.
Torres further ruled in October that the SEC couldn’t appeal her decision, and the regulator asked Torres to dismiss the case — a development Ripple labeled as a “stunning capitulation by the government.”
In its brief to Torres on Tuesday, the SEC took issue with the way Ripple has characterized the case. The regulator said the company hasn’t accepted responsibility for its actions and, further, ignored legal advice suggesting it should refrain from promoting XRP as an investment, the SEC said.
“[Ripple] opted for the money it gained by promoting an investment it sold for cash, while acting with the apparent fear that the disclosure of its finances and business activities required by law of those who sell securities would interfere with its profitable plan,” the SEC said in the brief, seen by Bloomberg. “Only a significant sanction from this court and the return of the ill-gotten gains Ripple made from its violations will cause Ripple to correct its conduct, either by registering its securities sales and making the disclosures required, or not selling securities.”
Ripple is set to file a reply to Tuesday’s SEC brief next month.
“There is absolutely no precedent for this,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in a post Monday on X, formerly Twitter, adding that there were no findings of fraud or recklessness in the case. “We will continue to expose the SEC for what they are when we respond to this.”
In the hours after the July ruling, Garlinghouse characterized the SEC as a “bully” in an interview with Bloomberg.
The regulator, in recent years, has sued several other crypto firms, including Coinbase and Binance. The former has steadily criticized the SEC’s strategy, asserting it regulates by enforcement — threatening penalties rather than explaining its rationale.
“Rather than faithfully apply the law, the SEC remains bent on wanting to punish and intimidate Ripple — and the industry at large,” Stuart Alderoty, Ripple’s chief legal officer, wrote Monday in a post on X, adding he expects Torres will “approach the remedies phase fairly.”
