Garlinghouse and Larsen are personally named defendants, not just the company — the SEC is testing whether individual executives bear liability for token sales, raising direct legal exposure for both men alongside Ripple Labs.
Second-order effects
The SEC's later push for $2B+ in fines over XRP sold after the suit shows the agency treating the filing as a floor, not a ceiling — every subsequent sale became fresh alleged exposure, pressuring Ripple's core revenue engine while the case dragged.
Third-order effects
The eventual settlement at well under the imposed fine, paired with the SEC's stated plan to exempt certain token offerings, points toward enforcement-by-negotiation replacing precedent-setting trials — leaving the underlying question of when a token is a security largely unresolved for other issuers.
The trend: Crypto enforcement is swinging from aggressive end-of-administration lawsuits against individual executives to discounted settlements and exemption frameworks, leaving token classification contested rather than settled.
Today, the SEC voted to attack crypto. Chairman Jay Clayton - in his final act - is picking winners and trying to limit US innovation in the crypto industry to BTC and ETH. (1/3) https://fortune.com/...
The SEC - out of step with other G20 countries & the rest of the US govt - should not be able to cherry-pick what innovation looks like (especially when their decision directly benefits China). Make no mistake, we are ready to fight and win - this battle is just beginning. (3/3)
We know crypto and blockchain technologies aren't going anywhere. Ripple has and will continue to use XRP because it is the best digital asset for payments - speed, cost, scalability and energy efficiency. It's traded on 200+ exchanges globally and will continue to thrive. (2/3)
Japan's FSA has already made it clear that XRP is not a security. I'm optimistic that Ripple will prevail in the final ruling in the US. SBI Holdings remains a steadfast partner to Ripple, and looks forward to expanding together in Asia. https://twitter.com/...
told y'all that $xrp was likely a scam. Started out promising, but a company printing & selling imaginary money with no utility sounds bonkers to me—if that's what this is Private companies have to play by the rules, Crypto shouldn't get a free pass. https://www.wsj.com/...
Ripple is and has always been an unregistered security running on a mysql database pretending to be crypto, attempting to run in the shadow of Bitcoin. Unlike Bitcoin : - You can't run a Ripple node. - Ripple is NOT open source. - Ripple coin (xrp) is printed not mined. https://t…
It's happening: SEC to sue Ripple over $XRP. @bgarlinghouse says “it's not just Grinch-worthy...it's an attack on the entire crypto industry and American innovation.” https://fortune.com/...
This is what happens when you fail to obfuscate control over their protocol like what Ethereum does/did (even though it's completely obvious Ethereum is centralized). https://twitter.com/...
FASCINATING-The SEC will be v important player in US #crypto in 2021 bc we'll finally learn (1) if a trust co is a #qualifiedcustodian & (2) which cryptos it thinks are securities (via S-1 comment process for @coinbase IPO) but for #XRP we may know sooner https://fortune.com/...
Ripple to Face SEC Suit Over XRP Cryptocurrency Agency, whose chairman is leaving soon, claims the company violated investor-protection laws when it sold the bitcoin-like digital asset https://www.wsj.com/...
The SEC has no problem overstepping it's authority when it comes to crypto and precious metals, but can't seem to punish publicly traded companies (Musk) even when its CEO's publicly violates laws after repeated warnings. https://twitter.com/...