SEC plans to ask judge for $2 billion in fines and penalties from Ripple Labs

The filings, which Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty said will be made public on Tuesday, are part of the continuing saga of its years-long case with the SEC. 

"Our response will be filed next month, but as we all have seen time and again, this is a regulator that trades in statements that are false, mischaracterized and designed to mislead," Alderoty posted on X on Monday. "They stayed true to form here. Rather than faithfully apply the law, the SEC remains bent on wanting to punish and intimidate Ripple - and the industry at large."

Ripple's CEO also took to X to chastise the regulator, citing recent court decisions that ruled against the SEC in favor of crypto companies it sued. 

"Gensler’s SEC has repeatedly acted outside the law – not going unnoticed by Judges admonishing the agency for a 'gross abuse of the power entrusted to it by Congress' (DEBT Box case) and for acting without 'faithful allegiance to the law' (Ripple case). Let’s not also forget Gensler’s lack of attention to SBFraud," Garlinghouse posted Monday afternoon. 

The SEC declined to comment to The Block. Court documents filed by the agency appear to be under seal. 

The SEC and Ripple have been embroiled in a legal fight since 2020 when the agency accused Ripple of raising $1.3 billion through the sale of XRP +1.94% , which it says is an unregistered security. Last year, Judge Analisa Torres ruled that some of Ripple’s sales, called programmatic, of XRP did not violate securities laws because of a blind bid process in place for them. She did, however, rule that other direct sales of the token to institutional investors were securities. 

RT Watson contributed reporting 

Update (March 25, 20:52 UTC): Noted that the SEC declined to comment.