Overview
- Brad Garlinghouse disclosed July 12 that he and co‑founder Chris Larsen seriously considered winding Ripple down in 2020 and distributing the company’s XRP reserve to shareholders as an escape from the SEC lawsuit.
- Ripple chose litigation instead, spending about $150 million on its defense over four years and preserving hundreds of jobs that would have been lost under a shutdown plan.
- A 2023 federal ruling by Judge Analisa Torres distinguished programmatic retail XRP sales on public exchanges from some direct institutional sales, and the final district‑court judgment left a roughly $125 million civil penalty and an injunction limiting unregistered institutional XRP sales in place.
- Organized XRP holders, organized by lawyer John Deaton and credited with roughly 75,000 amicus declarations, supplied evidence and pressure that sources say helped shape Ripple’s defense and the factual record.
- With U.S. legal clarity still fragmented, Ripple has pushed growth overseas and secured Markets in Crypto‑Assets approval in Luxembourg so it can operate under a clearer European regulatory framework.