San Francisco-based company Ripple has filed a letter requesting a stay of the monetary portion of the court's final judgement that was published on Aug. 7.
Notably, the agency has consented to the request for a stay.
As reported by U.Today, Ripple was ordered to pay $125 million worth of penalties, which is only a fraction of what the SEC was initially asking for.
Some legal experts argued that both parties were unlikely to appeal the order on remedies.
However, Ripple is refusing to turn over the fine to the agency until "30 days after the time to appeal or the resolution of any appeal" has come to pass.
If the SEC does not appeal, the funds will be released from the escrow upon the deadline passing.
Ripple aims to extract maximum interest from the SEC if the agency ends up appealing and losing the lawsuit.
According to the most recent filing, the company "shall retain beneficial ownership of the Fund and all accrued interest but shall have no control over the Fund."
"The SEC hasn’t been given marching orders yet on the decision and this is the safest way to delay pending the Oct. 7 deadline," attorney Fred Rispoli explained in a social media post.
Meanwhile, Stuart Alderoty, Ripple's top lawyer, said that Ripple's legal status would not be affected by the SEC's potential appeal.
Last year, Ripple scored a major victory against the SEC after the court ruled that secondary sales of XRP tokens cannot be viewed as securities.
Recently, Alderoty also sharply criticized the term “crypto asset security,” urging the SEC not to deceive judges.
Valeria Blokhina
Dan Burgin