Bill Morgan: SEC Suit Tied Ripple’s Hands — XRP Promotion Suffers Long-Term Fallout

Legal expert Bill Morgan says Ripple’s hands were tied — and the fallout still lingers Prominent attorney Bill Morgan has argued that Ripple’s ability to market XRP was severely constrained during its high-profile legal fight with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and that those constraints have had lasting effects on XRP’s visibility. In a post on X, Morgan said Ripple largely refrained from promoting XRP or the XRP Ledger for fear that public promotion could be used by the SEC to argue the token was an unregistered security. He added the irony that Ripple was sued by the regulator anyway, despite the company’s caution. Morgan’s remarks responded to comments from XRPL stakeholder Wietse, who was reacting to community member Crypto Eri’s observation that the XRP Ledger has supported tokenized gold for some time but hasn’t received sufficient attention. Wietse argued the XRPL often feels “too early” for mainstream adoption and “too late” when others catch up — a dynamic that limits uptake and publicity for novel features. Morgan says that had Ripple been free to market XRP more aggressively, the ledger and the token would likely have gained far more exposure. He pointed out that during the SEC lawsuit the firm “barely mentioned XRP,” while other projects — including Bitcoin and Ethereum — were promoted with far fewer regulatory consequences. Morgan also invoked former SEC official Bill Hinman, saying Hinman “effectively promoted” ETH during his tenure. According to Morgan, Ripple’s current promotion of XRP remains muted and often indirect — carried out “under the cover” of acquisitions and products such as RLUSD. He contrasted that approach with figures like Michael Saylor, who openly and regularly champions Bitcoin. Ripple, however, continues to emphasize XRP’s central role in its strategy. In his New Year’s message, CEO Brad Garlinghouse reiterated that XRP is — and will remain — the “heartbeat” of the company’s vision to enable an Internet of Value. Garlinghouse highlighted two major 2024 acquisitions, Ripple Prime and GTreasury, saying they will accelerate Ripple’s ability to build crypto infrastructure, modernize global financial plumbing, and rethink legacy systems — a long-term project that won’t be accomplished by chasing market cycles or short-term hype. Market snapshot: At the time of writing, XRP was trading around $2.16, up more than 5% over the prior 24 hours, per CoinMarketCap. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news