The chart above clearly shows the decrease in the number of wallets with a minimum of 1 million XRP in their wallets after the lawsuit. It is supported by this graph that the decline in the XRP price is carried out by the whales who made sales due to the unfavorable conditions brought by the lawsuit.

December 29, 2020

Ripple released a declaration on its site to explain the Ripple side of the issue, as the media constantly covered the SEC claims after the SEC filed a lawsuit. Important articles in the declaration are as follows:

● This lawsuit filed against Ripple is opened to the entire cryptocurrency sector-specific to Ripple.

(With this declaration, the regulatory uncertainty of cryptocurrencies has been expressed particularly in the USA.)

● Many XRP investors who had no links to Ripple were adversely affected by the lawsuit. (SEC’s main duty is to protect investors. As a result, Ripple used the significant drop in the price of XRP due to the lawsuit as a trump card in the declaration. Furthermore, it is significant to state that XRP investors have no connection with Ripple in terms of indicating the functions that XRP carries. Because XRP does not give its investors any rights or control powers over the Ripple company. This is an important argument in favor of Ripple that XRP is not a security.)

● Ripple will continue to serve its users in the USA.

(It can be considered that with this explanation, Ripple is both aiming to comfort the public and giving a message that it will remain loyal to the existing cooperation agreements.)

● The vast majority of XRP’s volume comes from outside the USA. The majority of Ripple’s customers are also outside the USA.

(In other words, although the headquarters of the company is in the USA, it has been stated that the income sources were outside the USA, and the suspension of XRP trade by the companies in the USA after the lawsuit will not seriously affect the company.)

January 1, 2021

Deaton Law Firm filed a petition with the Rhode Island District Court before a group of XRP investors it represents. The petition requested that the Supreme Court ruled that the XRPs under investigation in the lawsuit between the SEC and Ripple were XRPs offered for sale between 2013 and 2015 and that XRP trading after that date is not subject to the litigation. The Deaton law firm took this decision and tried to pave the way for investors holding XRP in order to sell their balances in the US market.

January 5, 2021

Following the SEC lawsuit, Tetragon, a UK-based firm that owns 1.5% of Ripple, requested the return of its Ripple shares and sued Ripple. Tetragon has demanded a refund of its investment by returning its $200 million worth of Series C shares, based on the contractual clauses signed with Ripple. In addition, a ban on spending Ripple on all cash and cash equivalent assets is requested until payment was made.

Following this lawsuit, Ripple confirmed that if XRP is defined as a security in the agreement with Tetragon, Ripple is obligated to repay the $200 million investment. However, Ripple stated that XRP had not yet been identified as security and the payment would not be made, as the lawsuit with the SEC is still ongoing. Ripple also accused Tetragon of taking advantage of the SEC’s lawsuit.

January 7, 2021

Ripple CEO Garlinghouse announced that the company is in an effort to drop the lawsuit by settling with the SEC and that they will continue this approach with the new SEC chief to be appointed by the Biden administration.

January 13, 2021

Japanese financial authority FCA, by answering questions from cryptocurrency media site The Block, officially stated that they saw XRP as an electronic currency, not a security. Considering that Ripple is also partnering with Japanese finance giant SBI Holding, it can be said that the company is strong in Japan.

Countries such as Japan, Switzerland, Singapore, and the UK are countries that classify XRP and have a clear understanding of regulation. For this reason, Ripple issued a statement just before the lawsuit is filed, stating that the company’s headquarters could be moved to countries where regulations are clear, such as England and Japan, due to regulatory uncertainty in the USA. The fact that this statement was published just before the lawsuit is filed created the possibility that Ripple may have heard of the lawsuit in advance.

January 29, 2021

Ripple sent 93-page advocacy to the court in response to the SEC’s accusations. The content of the advocacy was based on two main arguments.

1. It is stated that XRP is a means of payment and was used for money transfers, and it did not meet the requirements for defining XRP as a security, therefore it does not fall under the jurisdiction of the SEC.

2. Based on the freedom of information law, Ripple has requested that all documents of the SEC regarding BTC and ETH were handed over to them.

(In this way, Ripple aims to bring the drop the lawsuit by revealing the similarities of the criteria valid for BTC and ETH with XRP and ensuring that the SEC’s definition of “not a security” for BTC and ETH is also valid for XRP.)

February 18, 2021

In a new statement to the court, the SEC accused the company’s executives Garlinghouse and Larsen of making a profit by manipulating the XRP price in their interests. Ripple’s lawyers explained that these allegations are essentially based on whether or not XRP, which is the main subject of the lawsuit, is a security and that the allegations are not a new subject of development for the lawsuit.

February 22, 2021

Moneygram announced that it has suspended its collaboration with Ripple over XRP due to the SEC lawsuit. Moneygram started using XRP in international forex transfers in 2019 by making an agreement with Ripple. Ripple made a $50 million investment in Moneygram in return for this contract.

March 1, 2021

Rosen Law Firm sued Moneygram for misinforming its investors about XRP. The firm announced that investors who bought Moneygram shares between June 17, 2019, and February 22, 2021, could recover damages while demanding that they become involved in the lawsuit.

March 3, 2021

Ripple executives Garlinghouse and Larsen sent missives to the court separately through their lawyers and demanded that their accusations be dropped. In the content of the missives, it was stated that the lawsuit filed by the SEC had been entirely a regulatory lawsuit related to the classification of XRP and that Garlinghouse and Larsen sold XRP anonymously over the stock market, not directly to investors. Therefore, it is requested that the accusations be dropped, stating that Garlinghouse and Larsen could not mislead investors in any manner.

March 5, 2021

Tetragon’s lawsuit to get back its investments is rejected since the lawsuit between the SEC and Ripple has not yet been concluded and XRP has not been identified as a security.

March 8, 2021

Ripple declared that their cooperation with Moneygram is terminated by mutual agreement. In this way, the SEC’s lawsuit caused Ripple to lose one of its most trusted and prestigious partners in the US. After the trial started, Ripple announced more than 20 partnerships to make up for the loss of the Moneygram partnership and to reclaim its dwindling reputation as a result of the litigation.

March 11, 2021

In a letter to a group of banks, the SEC requested the bill of account of Garlinghouse and Larsen. Ripple’s lawyers demanded that this request be cancelled. In the petition of objection Ripple lawyers, it is stated the lawsuit did not contain any fraud accusations, Garlinghouse and Larsen are already cooperating with the court and have already submitted bank records of disputed transactions to the court, and the SEC’s request for detailed account documents went beyond the scope of the lawsuit.

March 12, 2021

Japanese financial giant SBI Holding announced that the company will distribute XRP to all investors with 100 or more shares. This move of SBI Holding, which is the current partner of Ripple, can be interpreted as a move towards continuing support for Ripple.

March 14, 2021

At the beginning of the article, we have mentioned Deaton Law Firm’s initiative on January 1, 2021. In response to this request, the SEC issued a declaration stating that New York is the competent court for the Ripple lawsuit. Deaton Law Firm officially applied to represent XRP investors and become a third party to the SEC-Ripple lawsuit on behalf of the 6,000 XRP investors that it represents. The reason given for the application was Ripple and its executives were interested in drop the accusitions against them and the company and that there was no party representing the interests of investors.

March 17, 2021

The request of Deaton Law Firm to intervene in the lawsuit is rejected. On the same dates, SEC sent a statement to the court with regard to why they are requesting bank records. The statement mentions that Garlinghouse and Larsen made $600 million in profit from XRP sales and how that money is spent should be reviewed by the SEC. Besides, according to the arguments of Garlinghouse and Larsen, their XRP sales are based on the fact that these sales are made without crime element, and according to the methods of spending 600 million USD by Garlinghouse and Larsen, both the accuracy of these arguments and whether the price of XRP is manipulated or not should be tested.

The accuracy of the arguments means that if Garlinghouse and Larsen did without criminalizing XRP sales, there should not be any money smuggling activities. If the SEC finds any trace of money smuggling, it will show that executives know that the income from XRP sales can be viewed as a criminal element.

March 22, 2021

The SEC refused to provide Ripple’s requested documents regarding BTC and ETH and applied to the court for the cancellation of this request. In the application, it is stated that the BTC and ETH cryptocurrencies are irrelevant to the lawsuit.

This comparison, which can be quite relevant due to the fact that XRP is one of the biggest cryptocurrencies such as BTC and ETH and has similar characteristics, has been described as irrelevant by the SEC, strengthening Ripple’s trump and giving rise to an idea that the SEC has a weakness.

On the same date, while examining the SEC’s arguments, the judge posed a question to SEC’s lawyers:

“Is it true that according to your arguments, everyone who sells XRP is partnering in the illegal securities sale?”

SEC lawyers said in response that only Ripple as the company and Ripple affiliates can sell XRP illegally. This response of the lawyers proved that there is no risk of exchanges in the USA to re-list and trade XRP created a positive atmosphere in the market.

March 24, 2021

After the SEC’s refusal to provide BTC and ETH-related documents, Ripple’s lawyers repeated their request, claiming that XRP is one of the market’s leading digital currencies such as BTC and ETH and that the SEC has already defined ‘not securities’ for BTC and ETH. The firm submitted the documents to the court proving that the documents are related to the lawsuit.

March 29, 2021

The court granted the motion, reconsidering for a second time Deaton Law Firm’s motion to intervene in the lawsuit for a second time, which it had previously denied. Deaton represented 6,000 investors at the time of the first application. On March 29, when the application was accepted, it represented more than 10 thousand investors.

By virtue of Deaton, the involvement of XRP investors in the lawsuit provides a new defence front in favor of Ripple, while the SEC will try to prove its claims against direct investors, whose primary task is to protect investors, is seen as a development that can change the process of the lawsuit

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April 6, 2021

The court justified Ripple’s request and ordered the SEC to deliver all documents (excluding employees’ correspondence) to Ripple regarding BTC and ETH. With this development, there was an expectation that the lawsuit could end earlier than expected on behalf of Ripple.

April 9, 2021

The court denied SEC’s motion to access Garlinghouse’s and Larsen’s bank accounts because XRP was not related to their identification as securities.

We can say these decisions are taken on April 6 and 9 caused the lawsuit to turn in favor of Ripple, as it directly supported Ripple’s main defense.

April 19, 2021

A weekly $33 million worth of XRP inflows into XRP balances of digital asset management companies, according to Coinshares’ weekly report. This situation is significant in terms of showing that institutional investors are demanding XRP. The fact that the lawsuit turned in favor of Ripple can be shown as one of the biggest factors in the formation of this demand.

April 20, 2021

Ripple’s lawyers argued that the SEC’s move endangered Ripple’s cooperation and prestige outside the United States, claiming that the SEC violated federal laws and the Hague Convention, as the SEC requested information and documents regarding XRP from financial authorities abroad.

MOU refers to the SEC’s request for documents from foreign authorities (Memorandum of Understanding). MOU involves regulatory departments between countries to make information, documents and research from each other. In other words, this move of the SEC is not the first in history, however, this move has been publicly interpreted as the SEC’s making the lawsuit bad.

The real significance of this move is that it ends the uncertainty about whether Gary Gensler, who has just taken over the SEC, will decide to withdraw from the Ripple lawsuit or not. It is obvious the new SEC Chairman is in favor of the continuation of the lawsuit.