A U.S. federal judge has denied a joint request by theSecurities and Exchange Commission and Ripple Labs to approve a reduced $50million settlement and dissolve a prior court injunction in the agency’slong-running case against the crypto firm.U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattanrejected the motion on Thursday, stating that the parties failed to demonstrateexceptional circumstances that would justify setting aside her earlier ruling. At the time of publication, XRP was down 3%, trading at $2.12.Judge Rejects Ripple-SEC SettlementIn 2023, the judge had imposed a $125 million civilpenalty and a permanent injunction against Ripple for selling XRP tokens toinstitutional investors without registering them as securities.“The parties do not have the authority to agree not tobe bound by a court’s final judgment that a party violated an Act of Congress,”Torres wrote in her ruling. She added that the court would deny any request tovacate the injunction or reduce the penalty if jurisdiction returned.The joint settlement request, submitted in May, soughtto resolve the case with a $50 million penalty, far below the SEC’s originaldemand of $2 billion. Both sides agreed to the proposal while their respectiveappeals remained pending. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals had granted a60-day pause to allow the lower court to consider the motion.Citing Supreme Court PrecedentJudge Torres cited Supreme Court precedent in herdecision, emphasizing that enforcement actions involving violations of federallaw cannot be reversed solely through private agreement. The SEC filed its initial lawsuit against Ripple inDecember 2020, alleging that the company raised funds through unregisteredsecurities sales of its XRP token. Torres later ruled in July 2023 that XRP sales onpublic exchanges did not meet the definition of securities, but that $728million worth of XRP sales to institutional investors did fall under securitieslaw.In response to Thursday’s decision, Ripple Chief LegalOfficer Stuart Alderoty posted on social media that the company has not yetdetermined its next steps. The SEC declined to comment.This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.