Judge says no to Ripple and SEC’s joint request — $125M penalty stands for now originally appeared on TheStreet.

On June 26, Judge Analisa Torres once again denied the joint request filed by the blockchain tech and payments firm Ripple and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an indicative ruling.

Both the payments company and the federal securities regulator have been seeking an indicative ruling that would have vacated the court judgment passed earlier that issued a permanent injunction against Ripple and imposed a civil penalty of $125 million against it.

Ripple's chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, responded to the latest ruling on X, "With this, the ball is back in our court... XRP’s legal status as not a security remains unchanged. In the meantime, it’s business as usual."

As reported earlier, the Ripple vs SEC saga began back in December 2020 when the regulator sued the company for selling allegedly unregistered XRP securities worth $1.3 billion.

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Judge Torres ruled in July 2023 that the company selling XRP tokens to institutional investors violated securities laws, but their sale to retail investors didn't violate any laws.

Each side then interpreted the ruling as a partial win.

In August 2024, the court's final ruling imposed a civil penalty of more than $125 million against Ripple and directed it to desist from any further violations of securities laws.

But then came May 8, 2024, and both parties filed a joint settlement letter, requesting the court for an indicative ruling to dissolve the August 2024 judgment.

It essentially asked the court to vacate the injunction against Ripple restricting it from issuing unregistered XRP securities. It also requested the court to lower the penalty from $125 million to $50 million.

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“The parties do not have the authority to agree not to be bound by a court’s final judgment,” the latest ruling said.

What it means is that the lawsuit will proceed in the court as per standard procedures and will not be expedited as per the parties' will.

As per Kraken, XRP immediately fell 1.5% from $2.15 to $2.12 following the latest ruling.

Judge says no to Ripple and SEC’s joint request — $125M penalty stands for now first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 26, 2025

This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 26, 2025, where it first appeared.