Ripple Labs claimed that the $2 billion penalty requested by the SEC was disproportionate, citing the Terraform Labs-SEC agreement as an example against the proposed heavy penalty in its ongoing legal battle with the SEC.
In the Ripple case, the SEC demanded that the company pay a $2 billion fine for XRP sales to institutional investors.
Stating that the penalty requested from Ripple was disproportionate and exorbitant compared to the penalty of $ 4.47 million requested from Terraform Labs, Ripple lawyers claimed that a fair penalty for Ripple should be around $ 10 million.
Ripple lawyers included the following statements in their objections:
“The fine sought from Ripple represents approximately 1.27% of the defendants' $33 billion in gross sales.
However, the SEC has accepted fines ranging from 0.6% to 1.8% of the defendant's gross income in other cases. Therefore, the amount requested from the company is exorbitant.
Additionally, the SEC is seeking a fine well above this range, even though there is no alleged fraud in the Ripple case and institutional buyers did not suffer significant losses.”
For the reasons explained, Ripple lawyers concluded that the “fair and appropriate” penalty for Ripple would be no more than $10 million.
When Will the SEC-Ripple (XRP) Case End?
As the legal battle between the SEC and Ripple approaches its end, legal experts expect that the long-awaited final decision may come in July unless the SEC makes an unexpected move.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse spoke with the company's CTO David Schwartz at the XRPLApex2024 event and made an updated prediction on this subject. Ripple CEO thinks the lawsuit could happen as soon as the end of this summer.
“My guess is that it was before the end of summer. Someone asked me about the end of August, but I stated that September 21 was the end of summer.”
In the interview, Garlinghouse was asked what would happen if Ripple did not receive a positive decision and XRP was considered a security.
Ripple CEO responded to the question: “To put it bluntly, in such a case, XRP will be considered a security only in the USA. The SEC has jurisdiction only in the USA, and in some respects… It is as if the case is closed in the world today. As a result, negative As a result, investors will not be able to trade XRP on most crypto trading platforms in the US.” He replied:
*This is not investment advice.