XRP News Today: Ripple,SEC Seek Court Ruling to End Legal Battle

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple Labs Inc. have jointly submitted a letter to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, formally requesting an indicative ruling to finalize the settlement process in the long-running case SEC v. Ripple Labs Inc. The letter, dated May 8, 2025, was submitted to Judge Analisa Torres via the court’s electronic filing system (ECF).

The letter requests the Court to issue an indicative ruling under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 62.1. The parties seek the Court’s guidance on whether it would be inclined to grant two key requests if the matter were remanded from the appellate court. First, they request that the injunction against Ripple, included in the Final Judgment from August 2024, be dissolved. Second, they ask that the funds held in escrow—specifically $125,035,150—be partially distributed, with $50 million to be paid to the SEC in satisfaction of the civil penalty, and the remaining amount returned to Ripple.

This joint request follows a series of legal steps stemming from the Court’s Summary Judgment Order issued on July 13, 2023, and the Final Judgment entered on August 7, 2024. The Final Judgment included a civil penalty imposed on Ripple for alleged violations of Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933 and included an injunction. Ripple subsequently appealed the judgment, and the Court issued a stay on enforcement of the monetary penalties in September 2024.

The pending appeals were filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and remain under consideration. However, as indicated in the joint letter, the SEC and Ripple have now reached a settlement agreement that they are jointly requesting the Court to facilitate. The indicative ruling, if granted, would clear the path for the Second Circuit to remand the case to allow Judge Torres to formally approve the settlement and close the case.

Crypto influencer Amelie’s tweet summarized the implications of this filing for the XRP digital asset. While her characterization of XRP being “officially free” is not a legal term, it reflects a widely held interpretation that this settlement, if approved, would effectively remove legal uncertainty surrounding XRP’s regulatory status in the United States, particularly the constraints that the injunction had previously imposed on Ripple. This filing marks one of the final procedural steps to end the SEC’s enforcement action against Ripple Labs.