Ripple CEO Garlinghouse Commemorates Ripples Victory With A Tattoo

In a bold and symbolic gesture, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has etched a pivotal moment in crypto legal history onto his skin.

On Sunday, a popular crypto X account posted a photo of Ripple's CEO posing for the camera. On his arm was a tattoo of the XRP logo and the date July 13, 2023.

This tattoo was a commemoration of the date when a court ruled Ripple's XRP sales to institutional investors violated securities law but cleared retail sales, which was a significant legal victory for Ripple.

On its X post, the popular crypto account commented on the audacity of Garlinghouse's actions, saying

"When someone with a Harvard MBA gets a tattoo after 50, they've through it through and know it's only going to change in a good way. "

Ripple and SEC Move Toward Case Closure

Just days before the tattoo reveal, Garlinghouse announced that Ripple would drop its cross-appeal in the case, signaling a desire to put an end to the case once and for all.

“Ripple is dropping our cross-appeal, and the SEC is expected to drop their appeal, as they’ve previously said,” Garlinghouse stated.

However, the road to resolution remains complex. A joint request by Ripple and the SEC for a reduced penalty and a revised ruling on institutional XRP sales was denied by Judge Analisa Torres.

She noted how Ripple's willingness to "push the boundaries" of the prior summary judgment, but warned that Ripple could be playing with fire as it could incur further violations.

Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty commented on the court’s stance, explaining that the company had two choices: continue its appeal or end it now.

He emphasized that regardless of the path taken, XRP's legal status as not a security remains unchanged, a crucial point for the broader XRP community.

XRP Ledger Rolls Out New Upgrades

While Ripple’s legal team navigates courtrooms, its development arm RippleX is pushing forward with innovation.

The latest release, XRP Ledger v2.5.0, brings a host of technical improvements designed to enhance performance, security, and token utility on the network.

RippleX engineer Mayukha Vadari hailed the upgrade as “possibly the best single lineup of amendments” in the protocol’s history.

The XLS-85 Amendment improves the escrow system by supporting third-party issued tokens, such as stablecoins, and introduces multi-purpose tokens tailored for institutional use cases.

Another key amendment, XLS-56 Amendment: enables wrapper transactions, allowing up to eight actions in a single transaction, reducing failure rates and boosting efficiency for complex operations.

The upgrade comes at a time of growing interest in the XRP ecosystem. Daily active addresses on the XRP Ledger have skyrocketed, jumping from an average of 35,000 to more than 295,000, signaling strong user adoption and renewed developer engagement.