In the wake of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission formally closing its legal dispute against Ripple Labs Inc., the XRP Army believes it is confirmation that the group is on the “right side of history”—a mantra that’s been repeated among the community since 2020.
It stems from a blog post from Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who said at the time: “We are not only on the right side of the law, but we will be on the right side of history.”
The SEC alleged that Ripple had participated in a $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering via the sale of XRP, suing the company and two executives in December 2020. Ripple denied the allegations, asserting that XRP is not a security.
At the time, XRP was worth approximately $0.56 with a budding community that had been growing since the token’s launch in 2017. It tanked 62% to $0.21 in the days following the news, according to CoinGecko.
Ironically, it was the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple that acted as the community’s call to arms and the evolution of the XRP Army, pseudonymous group member MackAttackXRP told Decrypt.
“I personally mobilized supporters to defend XRP and Ripple,” MackAttackXRP said. “The XRP Army grew significantly through social media and initiatives from influential figures within the community, such as John Deaton, who provided legal support on behalf of 75,000 XRP holders in the SEC lawsuit.”
Prior to the lawsuit, he said, the XRP Army moniker was mostly used as an insult by outsiders taken aback by the group’s vocal support for the token.
“Absolutely it brought us together. Hundreds of us submitted affidavits to the court per John Deaton, and we won,” XRP Army member James Rule told Decrypt. An affidavit is a written statement that can be used as evidence in court.
A fortunate side effect of the legal battle was that it gave the Army time to accumulate XRP tokens, Rule said, because the lawsuit suppressed the token’s price. Although he added he’d much rather it hadn’t happened.
Thank you for all the good work you are doing, I wish you a very nice weekend.
And just kidding, I hope you get paid in XRP.
We are on the right side of history.
On behalf of the entire #XRPCommunity 🍻
THANK YOU
Jeremy Hogan @attorneyjeremy
John E Deaton @JohnEDeaton1 pic.twitter.com/T2x8PI67YL— 🇳🇱 MackAttackXRP 🇳🇱 (@MackAttackXRP) March 5, 2021
We emerged from this battle bigger and stronger together,” MackAttackXRP said. “And we’ve known for years that we were on the right side of history.”
As Decrypt spoke to several XRP Army members following the close of the legal battle, they all repeated this feeling of being on the right side of history. It all led back to Garlinghouse’s 2020 blog post, which had become the source material for an XRP Army mantra.
“While we always believed we were on the right side of history, it’s not truly proven until it’s decided in court. Now that the case has been dropped, it’s been confirmed,” pseudonymous XRP Army member CryptoinsightUK told Decrypt. “I think there was regulation by enforcement, and the regulators picked winners and losers, which shouldn’t happen in free markets.”
Ripple fighting the SEC, the Army believes, not only clears the coast for XRP but also the entire crypto industry.
“This legal battle became a landmark event in the crypto industry, as it not only concerned the status of XRP itself, but also had broader implications for the regulation of cryptocurrencies in the U.S.,” MackAttackXRP explained. “It was perhaps the biggest dispute in American financial history, but it had and continues to have consequences for the entire crypto industry globally.”
After almost five years of aiding Ripple’s legal battle, he added, the XRP Army is going to get some much-needed rest. But soon, MackAttackXRP confirmed, the squad will rally its troops and “push XRP to great heights.”
