Thread by @StellarNews007

(1/🧵) What If the SEC Lawsuit Was Never About XRP — But About Buying Time?
A thread that might change the way you see the Ripple case:
What if the goal wasn’t to stop XRP…
…but to stall it just long enough?

Let’s connect the dots.
🧵👇

(2/🧵) XRP was gaining momentum in late 2020.
• Ripple had global partnerships
• ODL usage was growing
• Banks were trialing RippleNet
• ISO 20022 implementation was just around the corner

Then, out of nowhere, the SEC filed its lawsuit — just before Christmas 2020.

Suspicious timing?

(3/🧵) This wasn’t a civil lawsuit — this was a chokehold.
• It wiped XRP off major U.S. exchanges
• Froze institutional adoption
• Put a target on Ripple while other tokens were booming

Meanwhile, Bitcoin and Ethereum were labeled as “not securities.”
Why isolate XRP?

(4/🧵) Fast forward: Ripple fights back… and wins some big milestones.
• Judge Torres rules XRP is NOT a security in secondary markets
• Ripple continues expanding outside the U.S.
• Global momentum grows

So what does the SEC do?
They ask for a pause.
60 days.

(5/🧵) That’s right. As of April 2024,
The SEC requested — and was granted — a 60-day pause in proceedings.

Why?
They claim it’s for “remedies discussion.”
But what if it’s not that simple?

What if this delay is strategic?

(6/🧵) Consider this: The U.S. is rushing to deploy FedNow, pilot CBDCs, and define stablecoin laws.

Ripple is already years ahead in infrastructure:
• Liquidity on demand (ODL)
• Private ledgers for CBDCs
• Interoperability with ISO 20022
• Cross-border payment rails live

(7/🧵) So here’s the theory: The lawsuit was never about “protecting investors.”
It was about stalling XRP until the U.S. could catch up.

Ripple wasn’t just ahead — it was too ahead.

And letting it run free would’ve made government and banking infrastructure look… outdated.

(8/🧵) It’s no coincidence:
• Lawsuit filed as ISO 20022 neared
• Pauses requested during key milestones
• FedNow launched mid-lawsuit
• U.S. CBDC conversations surged during the pause
• Ripple kept building outside U.S. control

A legal speed bump, not a blockade.

(9/🧵) The SEC kept XRP in limbo. But Ripple never stopped:
• XRP ODL volume increased globally
• Partnerships with banks and fintechs grew
• Private XRP ledger tested for CBDCs
• Stellar and XRP both sat quietly on ISO-ready infrastructure

The U.S. slowed the narrative — but couldn’t stop the build.

(10/🧵) Final thought:
If XRP truly posed a risk to investors, why hasn’t the SEC pursued exchanges listing it post-judgment?
Why delay remedies now?
Why freeze… when they already lost?

Simple:
They weren’t trying to win.
They were trying to wait.

(11/11) The Ripple case may end soon — but what it revealed might be bigger:
Regulators don’t always act to stop something.

Sometimes…
they act to stall something, until they can control it.

Are you ready once the switch flips?