Ripple Contests $2B SEC Fine, Says Fine Should Not Exceed $10M

Cross-border payment protocol Ripple has challenged the United States Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) request to pay a $2 billion fine against the blockchain company, saying the fine should not exceed $10 million.

In a new filing, Ripple Labs resisted the SEC's request for a federal judge to impose nearly $2 billion in fines against the company. Ripple urged the court to deny the SEC's requests for injunction, disgorgement, and prejudgment interest.

Ripple also said that the court should give a more reasonable civil penalty, which should not exceed 10 million dollars. The record said:

“Ripple has the intention and incentives to comply with that guidance in the future. The SEC's draconian reform requests are unfounded in law or principle. This court should reject them in their entirety.”

The SEC filing asked the court to require Ripple to pay $876 million in disgorgement, $198 million in prejudgment interest and another $876 million in civil penalties. The total amount is about 2 billion dollars.

Ripple announced the requested amount about a month ago. On March 25, Ripple Labs Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderotti said that the SEC has asked a federal judge to pay such a fine against the blockchain company. The lawyer said that the SEC will continue to punish and intimidate Ripple and the crypto industry.

In the new filing, Ripple described the fine as “unreasonable” and said that the $10 million reflects a portion of their actual earnings. Ripple changed the exact percentage of shares in the document.

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The record also highlighted that such an amount “will be comparable in percentage and dollar terms to digital-property cases where there is no culpable mental state and no substantial injury or damage.”

On X, Alderoty pointed out that the SEC's actions and seeking fines are proof of the “continuing threat to all crypto” in the United States. Ripple's lawyer said that the case does not contain any allegations or findings of negligence or fraud.

In addition, the legal official hopes that Ripple has won in “important” cases and that the judge will correctly present the final solutions of the case.

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