What began as an existential threat in 2020 has turned into XRP’s greatest advantage. It now has legal clarity that even Bitcoin and Ethereum can’t claim.
In December 2020, XRP (XRP-USD) was staring down what looked like the end of the road. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Ripple Labs of selling $1.3 billion worth of unregistered securities, sending the token crashing more than 60% in days. Exchanges delisted it, investors abandoned it, and news channels called it a regulatory nightmare.
For months, the token was in limbo. XRP’s future depended on the courts, not the markets, and skeptics wrote it off as a coin that would never recover. What began as a legal challenge soon felt like an existential crisis. The SEC was trying to make an example out of Ripple, and XRP was the test case.
What happened next surprised nearly everyone. Instead of dying quietly, the XRP community mobilized. Known dismissively as the “XRP Army,” these investors turned ridicule into resolve. They organized online campaigns, submitted affidavits, and followed every court filing like it was a sporting event.
Attorney John Deaton emerged as a key leader, rallying more than 75,000 holders to participate in the case. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also leaned into the fight, declaring, “We are not only on the right side of the law, but we will be on the right side of history.” This line became a rallying cry for supporters who refused to let the token go down without a fight.
Over the next few years, the case produced key victories that changed everything. In 2022, Ripple forced the SEC to release internal emails from William Hinman, showing contradictions in how regulators treated different coins. The following year, Judge Analisa Torres issued a landmark ruling that distinguished between institutional sales of XRP, which could be considered securities, and programmatic sales on exchanges, which were not.
This decision cracked open the SEC’s case and gave XRP what no other token had. It gave XRP legal clarity in the U.S. When Ripple agreed in 2024 to pay a $125 million penalty, a fraction of the SEC’s original $2.2 billion demand, it became clear the regulator had overplayed its hand. By August 2025, both sides dropped their appeals, and the case was officially closed. XRP was no longer a question mark.
The end of the lawsuit transformed XRP into a cryptocurrency with a unique advantage by giving it explicit judicial validation. Bitcoin and Ethereum may be widely accepted, but they still lack a formal legal precedent in the U.S. XRP now has that clarity, and it is written into case law.
For institutions that once avoided XRP, the verdict unlocked the door. Since the ruling, XRP has added nearly $180 billion to its market cap, proving just how much pent-up demand there was. The community that carried it through the darkest days now sees itself as battle-hardened, with a conviction that few other tokens can claim.
With the lawsuit behind it, Ripple is free to focus on building. The company has already acquired Hidden Road for $1.25 billion to strengthen its institutional trading arm and launched plans for its RLUSD stablecoin. On-chain activity is booming, with XRP Ledger payments up 800% since 2023, a sign that usage is growing alongside investor interest.
Most importantly, Ripple now has a moat. While other cryptocurrencies face shifting regulations, XRP enjoys a rare position of stability. This clarity could help it attract partners, expand globally, and even secure future ETF approvals. What nearly killed the token may turn out to be the very thing that makes it unstoppable.
At the time of writing, XRP is sitting at $3.0149.
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