XRP was the 2nd most valuable crypto before the SEC drama

Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse told NBC’s Trina Robinson that XRP was the second most valuable crypto token before the U.S. SEC’s interference. Garlinghouse said the government was arbitrarily picking crypto winners and losers instead of providing a level playing field for digital assets like it was meant to.

The Ripple boss expressed his disappointment, saying that the lengthy legal battle between Ripple and the U.S. SEC had been frustrating for the XRP family. He mentioned that Ripple had spent upwards of $150 million to fend off the U.S. SEC’s unlawful war, but he remained optimistic about the case’s positive conclusion in the near future.

Garlinghouse claims the SEC’s regulatory scrutiny was a turning point for XRP

✅ @Ripple CEO – Brad Garlinghouse says: "Before the SEC got involved in the crypto markets, #XRP was the second most valuable digital asset!“

pic.twitter.com/Wr88nAlMVD

— 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗸XRP (@BankXRP) November 17, 2024

Garlinghouse was adamant about the U.S. SEC’s negative effects on XRP prices, pointing out that the token’s price had plummeted 15% since the ‘rogue’ agency’s appeal nearly a fortnight ago. He insisted that XRP was ahead of ETH as the second most valuable crypto project before the U.S. SEC filed what he termed as an unethical lawsuit against Ripple. Garlinghouse disapproved of the agency’s approach to its case against Ripple, saying that it was the government’s job to ensure equal opportunities.

The Ripple boss emphasized the difficulty of growing XRP domestically to its full potential against the U.S. SEC’s headwinds but said the company was committed to unlocking the U.S. market. Currently, over 95% of Ripple’s customers are outside the U.S., but Garlinghouse believes that this narrative will change once the conflict with the U.S. SEC is laid to rest. 

The crypto mogul said he was positive about Ripple’s triumph in the long run, lightly suggesting that the XRP community would probably look back at this ‘chapter’ five years from now and just ‘chuckle.’

“Future generations will see us who bought $XRP under $5 the same way we see baby boomers who bought houses for under $20k.”

~ Armando Pantoja, Crypto analyst and investor

Garlinghouse remained generally optimistic about the U.S. market and domestic investors, perhaps anticipating a crypto-friendly environment under Trump’s administration, which he implied at the beginning of the interview. He envisioned a future where regular Americans would use XRP to make cross-border payments ‘just like sending emails.’

XRP flips DOGE after years away from the top

CoinGecko’s data revealed that XRP rose 102.7% in the last seven days to trade at $1.17, flipping the world’s largest memecoin DOGE, to become the 6th largest token by market cap. XRP flipped DOGE on Sunday night when its market cap grew to over $63 billion. As of now, XRP’s market cap is at over $64 billion against DOGE’s $54 billion. 

XRP holders who’ve held on to their bounty since the U.S. SEC’s lawsuit in 2020 – that triggered the XRP plunge – benefited from recent market activity with a lot of enthusiasm for the token’s ‘possible’ future growth. Perhaps even back to its 2018 position as second only to Bitcoin, according to the International Business Times. Recent speculation about Gary Gensler’s resignation has also pumped XRP prices, wrote the IBT. One XRP holder regretted not investing more in XRP in the past but insisted that buying now would still be a good idea.