Legal history

• On 21 November 2023 Binance Holdings Limited pleaded guilty to US federal charges related to the Bank Secrecy Act, failure to register as a money transmitting business, and sanctions law. As part of the agreement with the DOJ, the company agreed to forfeiture and a criminal fine totaling 4,316,126,163 dollars. The settlement was coordinated with actions of FinCEN, OFAC, and the CFTC. Changpeng Zhao separately pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective AML program and stepped down as CEO.
• On 30 April 2024 Zhao was sentenced to four months of imprisonment and a fine of 50 million dollars.
• On 29 May 2025 the SEC and the defendants jointly filed a procedural document dismissing, with a waiver of re-asserting the same claims (a joint stipulation to dismiss with prejudice), the separate civil case against Binance Holdings Limited, BAM Trading Services, BAM Management US Holdings, and Changpeng Zhao. This is a separate event; it did not cancel the guilty plea of Binance Holdings Limited in the 2023 criminal case.
• On 21 October 2025 Changpeng Zhao received a full and unconditional presidential pardon in his federal criminal case. The published act names Zhao and his individual case; Binance Holdings Limited is not named in the document.

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.

Public status

Class A shares of Circle Internet Group, Inc. began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on 5 June 2025 under the ticker CRCL. Information about the share price, market capitalization, and trading volumes are changing figures and are not included in the permanent profile.

Regulation and licenses

Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS is an electronic money institution supervised by the French ACPR and, in April 2026, received in France a crypto-asset service provider (CASP) license (AMF E2026-005).

According to Circle’s Form 10-Q, on 9 July 2026 the company received final OCC approval to establish First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A., operating under the name Circle National Trust. The bank began operating on 24 July 2026 and, at opening, provided Circle and its affiliates with fiduciary services for the custody of digital assets. The said Form 10-Q does not report that the management of the USDC reserve has been transferred to the bank.

On 31 July 2026 Circle also received from the New York State Department of Financial Services a limited-purpose trust charter to establish Circle Internet Trust Company LLC, a New York State trust company. The current legal issuers of USDC are Circle Internet Financial, LLC and Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS. The reserve and attestation model is covered separately in the USDC profile and the article what are reserves.

Regulatory history

• On 23 February 2021 the New York Attorney General (NYAG) reached a settlement with iFinex, the Tether companies, and their related legal entities. The settlement provided for a payment of 18.5 million dollars, the cessation of trading activity with persons from New York, and compliance with reporting requirements.
• On 15 October 2021 the CFTC issued separate consent orders in respect of the Tether companies and the Bitfinex operators. Tether was ordered to pay 41 million dollars in connection with untrue or misleading statements and material omissions about the backing of USDT. The Bitfinex operators were separately ordered to pay 1.5 million dollars for violations related to retail commodity transactions and registration requirements.

Transparency and audit

The backing of USDT is covered in the USDT profile and the article what are reserves. An audit of the issuer’s financial statements and quarterly reserve attestations are different kinds of documents.