Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse sold more than 357 million XRP between April 2017 and October 2020, a stretch in which he was publicly telling audiences he was "very long" on the digital asset, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's amended complaint against the company.
The regulator estimated the proceeds from those sales at roughly $159 million. The transactions were routed through cryptocurrency exchanges and market makers, and Garlinghouse's legal team did not dispute that they occurred, according to court records. The July 2023 summary judgment in the case confirmed the sales as fact.
The SEC further alleged that Garlinghouse paused his selling when XRP's price was falling and resumed when market conditions improved, even as he issued repeated public statements expressing confidence in the token's future. The agency's claims about his personal trading were ultimately not sustained: the SEC dropped all remaining personal claims against him in October 2023.
The disclosure resurfaced this week after crypto commentator XrpHodL, posting on X, directed the community's attention to the volume of the sales with the message "Wow Brad I thought you said you were LONG $XRP." The post drew fresh scrutiny to the distance between Garlinghouse's public messaging and his personal transactions.
Garlinghouse has led Ripple for nearly a decade and has been among the most visible corporate advocates for XRP, describing his position as "very long" in multiple interviews and telling the community that Ripple "will never give up on XRP." The court record establishes that the selling took place during the same period he was making those statements.
Note: Figures are from the SEC's amended complaint and the July 2023 summary judgment as described in court records.
The debate has widened beyond the chief executive. Community members have pointed to similar activity elsewhere in Ripple's leadership ranks, including former Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz, who is said to have sold the majority of his long-held XRP. Others have criticized the company's monthly releases from escrow, arguing that continuing sales by executives and the organization sit awkwardly against retail holders who keep accumulating the token. Some are pressing for a change in strategy or more disclosure from the top.
For XRP holders, the episode shifts attention back to on-chain data. Tracking large wallet movements and transaction flows has become a more closely watched signal as the gap between corporate messaging and insider selling draws renewed attention.
The legal question is settled; the reputational one is not. The SEC's decision to abandon its personal claims closed the enforcement chapter against Garlinghouse, but it left intact the underlying record of the sales and the public statements that accompanied them, a combination that continues to fuel argument inside the XRP community over how closely leadership's own trading should track the conviction it preaches.
