Ripple (CRYPTO:XRP) CEO Brad Garlinghouse revealed that the company’s settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could involve a $50 million payment made in XRP tokens.
In an April 11 interview with Fox Business, Garlinghouse described the reduced financial penalty as a significant step forward for Ripple and the broader crypto industry.
“The SEC is going to end up with $50 million. The U.S. government is going to get $50 million. We even talked about making that available in XRP," he stated.
Originally, Ripple had placed $125 million in escrow, but under the settlement terms, it will retain the majority of those funds.
The deal, still pending final approval from SEC commissioners, signals a shift in U.S. regulatory attitudes toward blockchain and cryptocurrency firms.
Garlinghouse attributed this change to new leadership at the SEC and the White House, which he said has created “tailwinds” instead of hostility for the industry.
He noted that the possibility of settling in XRP marks a notable departure from previous regulatory positions that challenged XRP’s status as a security.
“This is a major step forward,” Garlinghouse said, emphasising that Ripple is now positioned to grow within a more stable and innovation-friendly U.S. regulatory framework.
While Garlinghouse declined to predict XRP’s price, he offered a bullish outlook on Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC), forecasting it could reach $200,000.
“I think people underestimate how the largest economy in the world—the United States—went from headwinds, hostility to tailwinds, and I think people are still not fully quantifying how significant that is,” he said.
“I will predict Bitcoin … I think $200,000 is not unreasonable,” Garlinghouse stated, referencing Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson’s prediction of Bitcoin reaching $250,000 by the end of this year or next.
The ongoing settlement talks have led Ripple and the SEC to jointly request a pause in their appeals process, reflecting progress toward resolving a legal dispute that began in December 2020 over XRP’s classification.
At the time of reporting, the XRP (XRP) price was $2.07, and the Bitcoin (BTC) price was $83,443.85.