Ripple nearly shut down rather than fight the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, CEO Brad Garlinghouse said, describing a decision he and co-founder Chris Larsen faced after the agency sued the company in 2020.
Speaking at the University of Kansas School of Business earlier this week, Garlinghouse said the two seriously considered liquidating Ripple and distributing their XRP holdings to shareholders. He described it as the easiest path, against a government that he said had “infinite powers and resources.”
Ripple owns a large amount of XRP, and Garlinghouse said the company could have handed it over to shareholders pro rata and dissolved, effectively ending the case by ending the company.
But they decided to fight because closing would have cost hundreds of jobs. “I’m glad in retrospect, but that wasn’t obvious at the time,” he said.
