Ripple CEO Reveals Near-Shutdown Due to SEC Lawsuit Threat

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse revealed that he and co-founder Chris Larsen considered shutting down the company in 2020 due to a lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The SEC had sued Ripple, alleging it sold XRP as an unregistered security, and named Garlinghouse and Larsen personally.

Garlinghouse met with agency officials four times between 2017 and 2019 without a lawyer and was never told that XRP might be treated as a security. This led him to believe the company had been denied clear rules.

Ripple ultimately prevailed when Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP in itself is not a security. The two sides settled in May last year after the Trump administration installed new SEC leadership with a more accommodating approach to crypto.