Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the company seriously considered winding down and distributing its XRP holdings to shareholders after the SEC sued in 2020. He said Ripple ultimately chose to fight, preserving jobs but spending about $150 million on legal costs over four years.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the company seriously considered winding down and distributing its XRP holdings to shareholders after the SEC sued in 2020. He said Ripple ultimately chose to fight, preserving jobs but spending about $150 million on legal costs over four years.
Ripple once considered shutting down and distributing its XRP holdings to shareholders after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued the company in 2020, CEO Brad Garlinghouse said. Speaking at the University of Kansas School of Business, Garlinghouse said he and Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen weighed winding down the company before deciding to contest the case.
Ripple once considered shutting down and distributing its XRP holdings to shareholders after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued the company in 2020, CEO Brad Garlinghouse said. Speaking at the University of Kansas School of Business, Garlinghouse said he and Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen weighed winding down the company before deciding to contest the case.
The episode matters because it shows how close one of crypto’s best-known companies came to disappearing under regulatory pressure. According to Garlinghouse, closing Ripple would have ended hundreds of jobs, while fighting the SEC ultimately cost the company about $150 million in legal fees over four years.
The SEC sued Ripple in 2020, alleging that the company had sold XRP as an unregistered security. The agency also named Garlinghouse and Larsen personally in the case. Garlinghouse said he had met with SEC officials several times between 2017 and 2019 without a lawyer and was not told that XRP could be treated as a security.
Garlinghouse said Ripple held a large amount of XRP and could have distributed those holdings to shareholders on a pro rata basis before dissolving. Instead, the company chose to continue operating and defend itself in court.
Ripple later prevailed on a key point when Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP itself is not a security. The company and the SEC settled in May 2025, after a change in SEC leadership under the Trump administration brought a more accommodating stance toward the crypto sector.
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