Ripple-SEC legal battle hits pause button for potential settlement

The long-running legal battle between Ripple Labs and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeing another delay, as both parties have jointly requested the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to keep their appeals on hold while they work toward finalizing a settlement.

This request comes in when both parties are awaiting a decision on their joint motion to modify the final judgment and settle on some financial terms.

Lawyer James Filan reported that the agency will update the appeals court by August 15. The watchdog’s approach suggests further delays but also possibly a final phase in the dispute while XRP retraces its gains. XRP turns out to be among the few gainers of the day while Bitcoin (BTC) printed a red index.

Settlement hits a speed bump

According to the court filings, the SEC filed a notice of appeal from the district court’s final judgment on October 2, 2024. In its response, Ripple submitted a notice of cross-appeal from the district court’s final judgment on October 10, 2024. However, the court issued its scheduling orders on January 31 and established April 16, 2025, as the deadline for the defendant’s response to the commission’s brief.

May 8, 2025, saw the parties executing a settlement agreement to resolve the case. At the heart of the new filings is a pending motion for an indicative ruling in the district court. Ripple and the SEC jointly proposed lifting the injunction. It asked for reducing Ripple’s penalty from $125 million to $50 million.

Meanwhile, the district court had denied the indicative ruling motion. It stated that the “motion did not address whether ‘exceptional circumstances’ warrant the requested modification of the final judgment.” Recently, both parties filed their renewed joint motion for an indicative ruling.

XRP whales hit all-time high

As the Ripple vs SEC lawsuit is still unfolding, the XRP ledger has posted some heavy signs of growth. This includes both a usage and a key stakeholder perspective. Santiment reported that the number of active XRP addresses engaging in the market has averaged over 295K per day over the past week.

It added that the normal daily average over the past 3 months for such wallets stood at approx. 35k-40k. However, there are now more than 2,700 whale and shark wallets which are holding at least 1 million XRP. This has happened for the first time in the asset’s 12 years long history. XRP’s 24 hour trading volume surged by 158% on June 17 to stand at $5.23 billion.

After witnessing a slide over the past 7 days, XRP managed to gain marginally over the last 24 hours. The continued decline has caused the XRP price to drop by almost 8% in the last 30 days, but it is still up by 7% on the year to date (YTD).

📊 The XRP ledger is showing serious signs of growth, from both a usage and key stakeholder perspective.

📈 The amount of interacting $XRP addresses has averaged over 295K per day over the past week. Its normal daily average over the past 3 months was approximately 35-40K.

🐳… pic.twitter.com/RvxE8BSFAg

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) June 16, 2025

XRP is trading at an average price of $2.21 at press time, but it is still down by 42% from its all-time high of $3.84, recorded on Jan 4, 2018. A bunch of favorable decisions have helped the XRP to jump by around 350% in the past year. XRP has rallied from trading at the $0.50 zone in November 2024 to hit the $3 mark in January 2025.

Ripple recently shook hands with the UAE’s Zand Bank and fintech player Mamo to supercharge payments across the Middle East. The blockchain firm bagged the Dubai Financial Services Authority’s golden stamp recently. In the meantime, Zand Bank is cooking up an AED-backed stablecoin.

Your crypto news deserves attention - KEY Difference Wire puts you on 250+ top sites