Ripple Chief Executive Brad Garlinghouse has confirmed that the company seriously considered shutting down after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued it in December 2020. According to reports from CoinDesk, Garlinghouse made these revelations during a speech at the University of Kansas School of Business, describing the decision as the easier path against a government with "infinite power and resources." The company could have distributed its XRP holdings to shareholders on a pro rata basis and dissolved, effectively ending the case by ending the company. As reported by 99Bitcoins, Garlinghouse revealed that XRP Ripple was within weeks of dissolving after the SEC lawsuit, with the company holding a large XRP reserve that made this scenario viable. He framed the hypothetical dissolution bluntly: "You guys think these are securities. Ripple doesn't own it anymore. Ripple's gone now." The disclosure came after five years of keeping this near-death experience secret, with Garlinghouse revealing the company's ₹1,250 crore ($150 million) legal fees for the first time.
Despite the revelations about Ripple's near-death experience, XRP price remains largely unaffected, currently trading around $1.08, down about 1.3% over the past 24 hours. According to latest market analysis, XRP is stuck in a narrow range between $1.07 and $1.17, with traders waiting for clearer catalysts before making significant moves. The token has shown limited volatility, moving between these levels over the past week, indicating that the market has already factored in the legal victory news. Support remains strong near the $1.07 level, where buyers have stepped in several times, while resistance continues at $1.12 to $1.17. A break above $1.17 with stronger volume could shift momentum toward $1.25, though the path of least resistance currently looks sideways. As reported by 99Bitcoins, XRP USD began the week trading at $1.08 with more than $828 million in daily trading volume.
Crypto lawyer John Deaton has credited 75,000 XRP holders with helping Ripple executives resist pressure during the prolonged legal fight with the SEC. In a July 12 post, Deaton praised chief executive Brad Garlinghouse and executive chairman Chris Larsen for refusing to settle early, while also accusing SEC lawyers of using tactics to force a deal. Deaton entered the case after organizing XRP holders who opposed the SEC's broad treatment of the token, and a federal judge granted him permission to participate as an amicus allowing him to present arguments from holders who bought or used XRP in different ways. As reported by crypto.news, Ripple deputy general counsel Deborah McCrimmon later said community members supplied research and records that saved the company millions of dollars in legal costs. The survival story carries direct implications for XRP's current legal standing and price trajectory, including a roughly 400% surge from the November 2024 election through early 2026.
Despite the easier path, Garlinghouse chose to fight the lawsuit because shutting down would have cost hundreds of jobs. As reported by CoinDesk, he stated that while he's glad in retrospect, that decision was not obvious at the time. The legal battle resulted in ₹1,250 crore ($150 million) in legal fees over the four-year fight, with the company's US business remaining largely frozen for roughly five years after the lawsuit began. The SEC's December 2020 complaint alleged Ripple sold $1.3 billion of XRP as an unregistered security, triggering immediate market damage with the XRP price crashing approximately 60% in a week as major exchanges suspended or delisted trading. According to 99Bitcoins, Garlinghouse noted that before the suit was filed, he met with SEC officials four separate times between 2017 and 2019 to explain how Ripple's blockchain-based payment system used XRP, but regulators never indicated during those sessions that XRP could be considered a security.
Ripple ultimately prevailed when Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP itself is not a security. According to CoinDesk, the two sides settled in May 2025 after the Trump administration installed new SEC leadership that has taken a more accommodating approach to cryptocurrency. The crypto legal battle reached its clearest resolution in July 2023, when US District Judge Analisa Torres issued a split ruling: XRP is not a security when sold on public exchanges, though institutional sales were treated differently under securities law. The court imposed a ₹1,000 crore ($125 million) civil penalty, down sharply from the ₹10,000 crore ($2 billion) the SEC originally sought. Both sides filed appeals, then agreed to dismiss them. The distinction that XRP Ripple is not a security in retail markets became a landmark precedent for how tokens are classified across the industry. The broader crypto regulation environment also changed materially in the case's final stretch, with SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and the Trump administration moving away from regulation-by-enforcement toward greater industry engagement.
The Ripple lawsuit produced a divided result with mixed legal outcomes. Judge Analisa Torres ruled in 2023 that Ripple's programmatic XRP sales on public exchanges did not qualify as securities transactions under the facts presented, while ruling that institutional sales violated federal securities law. The court imposed a ₹1,000 crore ($125 million) civil penalty and an injunction against Ripple in 2024, but both sides dismissed their appeals in August 2025, leaving the final judgment intact. Deaton's description of an overall "win" reflects a favorable reading of the mixed legal outcome, though the court blocked the SEC's attempt to obtain years of personal financial records from Garlinghouse and Larsen in 2021. The counterfactual scenario of distributing XRP holdings would have removed the company's XRP overhang but stripped the token of Ripple's institutional growth story. The survival story carries direct implications for XRP's current legal standing and price trajectory, with the asset's current legal standing and price trajectory inseparable from Garlinghouse's decision to absorb ₹1,250 crore ($150 million) in costs rather than hand shareholders a bag of tokens and close the company.
