The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reduced its proposed settlement amount for Ripple from $2 billion to $102 million.

This step came after Ripple requested a reduction in the requested penalty. Ripple argued that the SEC had accepted penalties between 0.6 percent and 1.8 percent of the defendant’s revenue in previous cases and therefore offered to pay $ 10 million. The SEC said Ripple’s comparison was flawed and not applicable. The agency cited the fact that Terraform Labs was penalized with a lower percentage because the company was insolvent and agreed to various measures, including burning all of its remaining tokens. The SEC claimed that Ripple rejected these terms.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse (pictured) has yet to comment on the SEC’s reduction of the fine. “The SEC appears to have abandoned its absurd demand for $2 billion,” said Stuart Alderoty, the company’s general counsel.

The SEC sued Ripple in December 2020, alleging that XRP was an unregistered investment contract and that its sale was illegal. The lawsuit was brought against Ripple as a company and its two top executives, Chris Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse. In July 2023, the court ruled that the sale of XRP on exchanges did not constitute an investment contract. However, institutional sales were considered within the scope of the investment contract.