Ripple Labs, the San Francisco payments technology company, has disputed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) proposed US$2 billion penalty, labeling it as excessively harsh and misaligned with judicial precedents.
In a recent legal filing, Ripple’s defense team proposed a US$10 million fine, countering the SEC’s claim with arguments of overreach and a lack of evidence for such a severe sanction.
The disagreement is part of an ongoing legal battle, with the final decision on penalties awaiting Judge Analisa Torres’s court review.
Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer, Stuart Alderoty, has publicly criticized the SEC’s stance as a scare tactic aimed at the U.S. cryptocurrency sector, expressing optimism in Judge Torres’s fair adjudication of the remedy phase.
The schedule for the remedies briefing sets the SEC’s reply brief deadline for May 6.
The development is part of a lawsuit initiated by the SEC in December 2020 that claims that Ripple raised US$1.3 billion through unregistered securities offerings linked to the sale of XRP tokens.
Judge Torres ruled last July that public XRP sales did not violate securities laws while direct sales to institutional investors did.
