Ripple Labs Inc.

Ripple Labs Inc. is an American technology company developing infrastructure for payments and work with digital assets. Some of Ripple’s solutions use XRP, the XRP Ledger, RLUSD, and other assets. How the coin itself works is covered in the XRP profile; here it is about the legal entity.

The relation to XRP is historical: the XRP Ledger was launched in June 2012, and its founders handed the company 80 billion XRP. According to Ripple, as of 30 June 2026 the “Total XRP Held by Ripple” figure was 37,656,053,914 XRP, including 32.6 billion XRP held in on-ledger escrow.

Legal history

• On 22 December 2020 the SEC filed a suit against Ripple Labs Inc., Bradley Garlinghouse, and Christian Larsen, alleging unregistered offers and sales of XRP.
• On 13 July 2023 the court partly granted the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment. The court held that the Institutional Sales were offers or sales of investment contracts, whereas the Programmatic Sales and Other Distributions, under the circumstances considered, were not. The decision concerned specific categories of transactions and did not establish a universal legal status of XRP for all possible operations.
• By a stipulation dated 19 October 2023, the SEC dismissed the remaining claims against Garlinghouse and Larsen.
• On 7 August 2024 the court entered a final judgment against Ripple, imposing a civil penalty of 125,035,150 dollars and a permanent injunction related to further violations of the registration provisions of the Securities Act. On 4 September 2024 enforcement of the monetary part was temporarily stayed for the period of the appeal, and Ripple was required to place 111% of the amount in an interest-bearing account.
• In May 2025 the parties agreed on a conditional procedure that could have led to a payment of 50 million dollars to the SEC and a change to the injunction. This procedure did not become the final outcome of the case.
• On 7 August 2025 the SEC and Ripple dismissed their appeals. The final judgment of 7 August 2024, including the penalty of 125,035,150 dollars and the injunction, remained in force.