Ripple Says $10M Penalty Enough, Rejects SEC’s Ask of $1.95B Fine in Final Judgment

• Ripple Labs has opposed the SEC’s proposal seeking a nearly $2 billion fine against the company.

• Ripple Labs said the Court should impose a civil penalty of no more than $10 million.

Ripple Labs filed its opposition on Monday against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) proposal to ask a New York judge to impose a nearly $2 billion fine against the company behind the XRP Ledger blockchain.

“The Court should deny the SEC’s requests for an injunction, for disgorgement, and for pre-judgment interest, and should impose a civil penalty of no more than $10 million,” the filing said.

The SEC’s proposal asked the court to order Ripple Labs to pay $876 million in disgorgement, $198 million in prejudgment interest, and a $876 million civil penalty, amounting to a total of $1.95 billion. The court had found Ripple violated federal securities laws by making institutional sales of XRP but dismissed similar allegations by the SEC that the sale of XRP on exchanges and through algorithms also violated the law.

“The SEC’s remedial requests are more evidence of the administrative overreach that has beset this case,” Ripple’s lawyers wrote. “The agency acts as though it had prevailed entirely and had proved reckless conduct. It has done neither. The agency also seeks disgorgement barred by controlling Supreme Court and Circuit precedent and a separate penalty that exceeds by more than 20 times what it has obtained from any other defendant or respondent in a digital-asset case.”

Additionally, in a paragraph that redacted Ripple’s revenue from institutional sales, income taxes it paid, and it’s losses, the entity argued it had no gains to disgorge.