XRP Ripple got here inside weeks of dissolving after the US Securities and Change Fee sued the corporate in 2020, CEO Brad Garlinghouse revealed in a KU Hustle podcast interview on the College of Kansas College of Enterprise, printed July 8.
The disclosure reframes the complete SEC vs. Ripple authorized battle not simply as a courtroom struggle over token classification, however as an existential disaster that almost erased one in every of crypto’s most distinguished fee corporations and the XRP token’s major institutional backer from the map.
Do you know Ripple nearly shut down completely when the SEC first filed its lawsuit?
Whereas the general public is aware of Ripple received, few understand how shut they got here to falling by the wayside, or that Brad Garlinghouse proactively met with the SEC 4 occasions earlier than the lawsuit with out a single… pic.twitter.com/XSZ0qQqCKO
— XRP Fantasy Buster (@XRPMythBuster) July 11, 2026
This bombshell from Brad Garlinghouse comes as XRP USD begins the week buying and selling at $1.08, down -1.3% over the previous 24 hours, with greater than $828M in every day buying and selling quantity.
As for ETF flows, Ripple ETFs closed final week with modest inflows of $107,000, bringing the general whole to +$1.4Bn since they launched in November 2025, per CoinGlass information.
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Ripple Thought-about Distributing XRP and Strolling Away
Garlinghouse mentioned the inner calculus at Ripple was stark: the corporate holds a big XRP reserve, and one viable response to the SEC lawsuit was to distribute these holdings to shareholders on a professional rata foundation and shut its doorways.
“We nearly determined to close down the corporate when the SEC sued us … The corporate owns numerous XRP … We may have shut it down and … simply distribute the XRP to shareholders on a professional rata foundation,” Garlinghouse mentioned.
He framed the hypothetical dissolution bluntly: “You guys suppose these are securities. Ripple doesn’t personal it anymore. Ripple’s gone now.” For XRP holders, that state of affairs would have meant a token with out its major company steward, institutional gross sales operation, or payment-network growth funds – a structurally completely different asset than what trades as we speak.
Garlinghouse acknowledged the shutdown path had a sure chilly logic to it. “A whole lot of individuals would have misplaced their jobs. I feel that was a nasty consequence, however in some methods it was the simpler consequence,” he mentioned. Ripple selected to struggle as a substitute, a call he described as something however apparent on the time: “That was a tough choice, and clearly I’m glad on reflection, however that was not apparent on the time.”
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$150M in Authorized Charges, 5 Years of US Stagnation
Can Ripple's stablecoin return to glory?
After reaching an ATH provide of over $1.81B in the beginning of June, @Ripple's $RLUSD has contracted to only $1.53B at time of writing.$XRP's native stablecoin is now the ninth largest stablecoin by market cap, behind different new entrants like… pic.twitter.com/6qaKVb3JGf
— BSCN (@BSCNews) July 13, 2026
The price of staying within the struggle was steep. Garlinghouse mentioned Ripple spent $150M in authorized charges over 4 years, whereas its US enterprise remained largely frozen for roughly 5 years after the lawsuit started.
The SEC’s December 2020 grievance alleged Ripple offered $1.3Bn of XRP as an unregistered safety, a cost that triggered instant market injury, with the XRP worth crashing roughly 60% in per week as main exchanges suspended or delisted buying and selling.
Garlinghouse additionally famous that earlier than the swimsuit was filed, he met with SEC officers 4 separate occasions between 2017 and 2019 to elucidate how Ripple’s blockchain-based fee system used XRP. Regulators by no means indicated throughout these periods that XRP could possibly be thought-about a safety.
The crypto authorized battle reached its clearest decision in July 2023, when US District Choose Analisa Torres issued a break up ruling: XRP just isn’t a safety when offered on public exchanges, although institutional gross sales have been handled otherwise underneath securities legislation.
The excellence that XRP Ripple just isn’t a safety in retail markets grew to become a landmark precedent for the way tokens are labeled throughout the business.XRP’s market positioning shifted materially as soon as that readability landed.
Ripple was ordered to pay a $125M civil penalty, down sharply from the $2Bn the SEC initially sought. Either side filed appeals, then agreed to dismiss them. The case formally concluded in August 2025 after the appeals have been withdrawn.
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Regulatory Shift Helped Shut the Case
SEC CHAIR PAUL ATKINS JUST ANNOUNCED "PROJECT CRYPTO" AND IT IS BIGGER THAN MOST PEOPLE REALIZE
Right here's what he mentioned:
"Over the previous yr, we have now moved purposefully to reply President Trump's name to make America the crypto capital of the world. By means of what we're calling…
— WOLF Bitcoin (@WOLF_Bitcoin_) July 12, 2026
The broader crypto regulation atmosphere additionally modified materially within the case’s ultimate stretch. Beneath SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and the Trump administration, the company moved away from its prior regulation-by-enforcement posture towards better business engagement and a give attention to conventional fraud instances fairly than sweeping company penalties.
That shift contributed to the circumstances underneath which either side discovered decision acceptable. Garlinghouse has since publicly praised the brand new SEC route. Ripple’s post-lawsuit enterprise technique now targets the worldwide funds market with the authorized overhang lifted and the US injunction vacated.
For the XRP market, the survival story carries a direct implication: the asset’s present authorized standing and worth trajectory, together with a roughly 400% surge from the November 2024 election by early 2026, are inseparable from Garlinghouse’s choice to soak up $150M in prices fairly than hand shareholders a bag of tokens and shut the corporate.
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The publish XRP Ripple Was Weeks From Closing In SEC Lawsuit Reveals Garlinghouse appeared first on 99Bitcoins.
