Ripple Nearly Collapsed During SEC Legal Battle Brad Garlinghouse revealed that Ripple nearly shut down after the SEC filed a lawsuit in 2020. Fighting back was no easy task when faced with the regulator's virtually unlimited power, funding, and time. Ripple argued that XRP was designed for payments—much like Bitcoin. Purchasing XRP does not equate to owning a stake in the company; it grants no shares, voting rights, or any form of ownership over Ripple's business operations. To make matters worse, Garlinghouse had met with SEC staff four times between 2017 and 2019, yet—as he noted—no one had warned him that XRP might be classified as a security. The agency subsequently filed lawsuits against both Ripple and Garlinghouse personally. The SEC later dropped the charges against him but continued its legal offensive against Ripple. Garlinghouse condemned the move as unethical. Ripple ultimately survived, but the ordeal highlights just how close the cryptocurrency giant came to collapse. #BitcoinPriceAnalysis #XRP