According to Blockworks, a federal judge ordered Ripple to pay a civil penalty of $125,035,150 in its lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC had requested a payment of $2 billion, while Ripple had requested a maximum penalty of $10 million.
Ripple is ordered to cease and desist from any further securities law violations, Judge Analisa Torres wrote in a court filing on Wednesday. Torres denied the SEC's request for disgorgement and prejudgment interest, saying the securities regulator failed to prove "monetary loss" that required such damages. Ripple did not violate federal securities laws by conducting programmatic sales of XRP to retail customers through its trading platform. But Ripple's 1,278 institutional sales transactions violated securities laws, and the fine of $125 million was far less than the $1 billion in disgorgement and prejudgment interest and $900 million in civil penalties sought by the SEC.
The court also ordered other matters in the dispute to trial in 2023, including charges of aiding and abetting securities law violations against CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen. However, the SEC dropped those charges in October.
