Quick Summary
- Judicial Analisa Torres dismisses SEC-Ripple settlement as being procedurally not proper.
- Ripple and SEC requested a settlement deal of 50M payment to reduce the original 125M fine.
- Ripple spreads worldwide, and the company has linked with several corporation agreements in the Middle East and a U.S. pharmaceutical company that is incorporating XRP.
- Modern approach of SEC changes the tone of regulation towards crypto with a pro-crypto approach by President Trump.
- Some crypto-related cases were abandoned, which means a more benevolent attitude towards blockchain.
Judge Decrees Ripple SEC Settlement
The history of Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is not the very end of the long period of legal proceedings. In a dramatic turn of events, United States District Court of the Southern District of New York (Judge Analisa Torres) dismissed the proposed joint settlement as being determined as procedurally improper on May 15.
Torres complained in her filing:
Since framing their movement as to seek allows them to receive a settlement approval, the parties do not in fact mention the weight which they must haul up so as to remove the injunction and minimize significantly the Civil Penalty.
Under the terms that were proposed, Ripple would not have been required to pay the entire fine of 125 million dollars as it has had originally but only pay 50 million dollars, with the difference going back to the company. SEC and Ripple had thought that this deal was going to end their courtroom drama.
Ripple Takes Off Despite Legal Obstacles
Ripple is not sitting back and watching as the country tries to sort out the issue of legal status in the U.S.
Recently the blockchain company entered a new collaboration with Zand Bank and Zand fintech company Mamo to implement Ripple Payments into their cross-border transaction infrastructure within the Middle East.
The pharmaceutical distribution firm Wellgistics in the U.S announced that it will use XRP in its payment and treasury functions. The move was prompted by the fact that XRP is fast and efficient in its costs, said the company.
SEC Sends Signals That It Is Going to Be More Soft Under Trump
The decision is another step toward a change of attitude on the part of the SEC concerning crypto regulation. The agency is indicating signs of becoming crypto-friendly under President Donald Trump.
Trump has tapped his former SEC commissioner, Paul Atkins, who had a reputation as an approachable regulator to the head of the agency, which is shaping up quite the opposite, the enforcement-oriented approach of his predecessor Gary Gensler.
Over the past few months, SEC has:
- Dismissed lawsuits with Coinbase and Cumberland DRW.
- Ended its investigation against Uniswap Labs without stepping up.
- Concluded its investigation into one of the most popular NFT and gaming experiments CyberKongz.
- Answered that it will not take the next legal steps against Richard Heart, the creator of Hex, PulseChain and PulseX.
What’s Next?
Ripple and the SEC are now headed down an uneven road, and both parties may be required to restate their settlement attempts or fall back into appeals. In the meantime, the increasing global presence of Ripple, and the fact that the SEC is taking a softer approach auger well of a change in crypto climate in the U.S.
The drama is not over yet when it comes to this legal case, but the waters could be shifting to the side of the blockchain innovators.