Ripple’s effort to settle its long-running legal fight with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission failed this week. On June 26, U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres rejected a joint motion filed by Ripple and the SEC to reduce Ripple’s civil penalty from $125 million to $50 million. The motion also asked the court to remove a permanent injunction blocking Ripple from selling XRP to institutional investors.
The rejection means Ripple’s business remains restricted. It cannot sell XRP to banks or financial institutions as it did before the SEC lawsuit started in December 2020. Torres ruled that the previous court decision, which found Ripple’s institutional XRP sales broke securities laws, cannot be undone by private agreement.
Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty said the company now has to decide whether to continue its appeal. He added on social media that Ripple’s legal status for retail sales remains unchanged. XRP is still not treated as a security when sold to the general public through exchanges.
XRP’s price action reacted quickly to the legal setback. The token dropped 4.08% in the past 24 hours. It failed to hold the $2.20-$2.25 support zone, which had acted as a floor five times since May. The break triggered more selling pressure and liquidated about $29.4 million in long positions, according to Coinglass.
At the time of writing, XRP trades near $2.09. The daily Relative Strength Index (RSI) sits around 44, showing momentum is leaning bearish but not yet oversold. The 50-day simple moving average, now at $2.27, flipped from support to resistance.
If XRP closes below $2.08 in the coming sessions, technical traders expect a possible drop toward the next support cluster at $1.92-$1.95. This range has been tested multiple times since late 2023. A break below it could invite more liquidations and deeper losses.
XRP’s weakness comes as the wider altcoin market struggles against Bitcoin. Bitcoin’s dominance — which measures Bitcoin’s share of the entire crypto market value — stands near 65%. This means traders continue to favor Bitcoin over other digital assets.
XRP’s daily trading volume spiked 28% to $3.33 billion in the last 24 hours, driven mostly by forced selling.
The court ruling shows Ripple’s case remains stuck while the SEC under President Donald Trump’s administration has become less aggressive toward crypto companies. In 2025 alone, the SEC dropped actions against Coinbase, Uniswap, Gemini, and OpenSea. But Ripple’s situation is unique because it already received a final judgment in 2023.
The 2023 ruling allowed retail trading but blocked institutional sales. Ripple and the SEC tried to walk back part of this outcome, but failed to convince Judge Torres that circumstances had changed enough to justify undoing her order.
Ripple may also push for an appeal to the Supreme Court. But for now, the failed $50 million deal means its $125 million penalty stands — and the company’s path to unlock institutional XRP sales remains blocked.
