Ripple CEO’s XRP Sales History Shocks XRP Army

Brad Garlinghouse has spent years telling the public he believes in XRP. He has described himself as “very long” on the asset in multiple interviews.

Crypto commentator XrpHodL has drawn that stance into question, as he directed the community’s attention to Garlinghouse’s sale of more than 357 million XRP.

What the SEC’s Lawsuit Revealed

Garlinghouse has been CEO of Ripple for almost a decade. While he has achieved much with the company, he has faced notable criticism over the years. The question of his XRP sales entered the public record through the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple.

The SEC’s amended complaint alleged that Garlinghouse sold more than 357 million XRP between April 2017 and October 2020. The SEC estimated proceeds of approximately $159 million from those sales.

The sales ran through cryptocurrency exchanges and market-making intermediaries. The July 2023 summary judgment confirmed this directly. His legal team never disputed the sales happened. The fact of the selling is established in the court record.

The SEC also alleged that Garlinghouse periodically paused his sales when XRP’s market price was falling. He resumed selling when price conditions improved. All of this occurred while he made public statements describing himself as bullish on XRP.

Wow Brad I thought you said you were LONG $XRP pic.twitter.com/WOl9W4q952

— 🥇👨🏽‍🚀 (@XrpHodL_) November 5, 2026

The Long XRP Contradiction

Garlinghouse’s public position on XRP has been consistent over the years. He repeatedly encouraged confidence in its future, recently telling the community that Ripple will never give up on XRP. The question is if he believed in XRP that strongly, why was he selling hundreds of millions of tokens over a three-year period?

The court ruling ultimately found his sales did not constitute securities violations. The SEC dropped all remaining personal claims against him in October 2023. However, the legal outcome does not resolve the reputational question about the gap between his public statements and his private transactions.

XRP Army Responds

The post generated significant response from the XRP community, much of it critical of Garlinghouse and Ripple’s leadership. One community member noted that Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz sold over 24 of his 26 million XRP since 2013, adding another layer of criticism toward Ripple’s leadership team.

Another said Ripple continues to sell from escrow every month while retail holders keep buying. He suggested it is time they stopped. Garlinghouse has never publicly addressed the gap between his bullish statements and his years of steady personal XRP sales, and the calls from the community are getting louder.