SEC - A Settlement Has Been Reached in the Ripple Case! Shortly After, Harsh Criticism Came from a SEC Member!

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on May 8 that a settlement agreement has been reached in the XRP case involving Ripple Labs, CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and co-founder Christian Larsen.

According to the agreement, the SEC and Ripple will jointly petition the court for the removal of the injunction imposed on Ripple under the final decision dated August 7, 2024, and for the reduction of Ripple's penalty to 50 million. According to this redistribution, only 50 million dollars will be paid to the SEC; the remaining amount will be returned to Ripple.

While the settlement of the SEC Ripple case has been positively received by the cryptocurrency sector, SEC member Caroline Crenshaw stated that she opposed the Ripple agreement due to investor protection concerns.

Member Crenshaw, who approaches cryptocurrencies with skepticism, opposed and criticized the agency's decision to submit a settlement letter in its case against Ripple.

If the SEC member agreement is approved, it argued that the settlement would undermine the court's role in interpreting the securities laws and would fail to protect investors and the markets.

Crenshaw stated that the agreement "annihilated" both the legal penalty and the precautionary measure, effectively nullifying the impact of the court's decision.

"This agreement does great harm to the SEC's investor protection and undermines the court's role in interpreting our securities laws.

If Judge Torres accepts the agreement, it will eliminate the investor protections we have already won and leave a regulatory gap until the crypto task force establishes a regulatory framework.

As a result, the agreement between the SEC and Ripple is not in the best interests of the investors and markets that our agency is tasked with serving and protecting. It raises more questions than answers.

The SEC first filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs in December 2020, accusing it of unlawfully selling the local token XRP as an unregistered security.