At the same time, a full-scale social media drama has unfolded around the project's historic survival. It all began with revelations from Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse at the University of Kansas.
What Ripple management's comments mean for the chart
He admitted that in December 2020, with the company reeling from the SEC lawsuit, Ripple's leadership briefly considered shutting down the firm and distributing its $XRP holdings to shareholders. In the end, Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen decided to fight, which cost them $150 million in legal expenses but saved the company.
When media outlets picked up the story and began pushing headlines about capitulation and asset liquidation, Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz sharply pushed back against the panic, saying that his previous comments had been taken out of context: "I never said Brad seriously considered shutting down the company."
Schwartz recalled the pressure they were under at the time. The lawyers they had hired unanimously insisted that Ripple was "doomed and beyond saving," urging the company to settle immediately, while the personal lawsuits against its top executives were nothing more than pressure tactics from the SEC.
The legal battle did leave a negative mark on $XRP, causing the token to lose momentum in global adoption and surrender market share to competitors. The market is clearly tired of old fears, so Schwartz's direct clarification, combined with the bullish signal on the chart, may give the token a strong chance of entering a sustained period of local consolidation.
u.today
