Did the SEC Fear XRP’s Collapse? Leaked Emails Expose 2021 Doubts About Ripple

Ripple’s long legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may have wrapped up in the company’s favor, but newly released documents show how deeply the agency once worried about the future of XRP.

According to a fresh batch of files obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Coinbase, SEC officials were actively debating the stability and security classification of various crypto assets back in 2021. Among them, XRP was very much on their radar.

As reported by The Block, in one internal email, SEC officials questioned what might happen if Ripple, the company behind XRP, suddenly “walked away” or “disappeared.” The agency appeared concerned about what risks could surface for the XRP blockchain in such a scenario — a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse into how regulators were viewing crypto projects under pressure.

At the time, the SEC had already kicked off a major lawsuit against Ripple, accusing it of operating illegally by selling XRP as an unregistered security. While Ripple has since emerged victorious from that battle — even winning back some of the penalties it had previously paid — these newly uncovered emails show just how uncertain regulators were about the decentralization and resilience of the XRP network itself.

The revelations come amid a broader series of disclosures this week from Coinbase, which published dozens of SEC communications related to crypto oversight as part of its own ongoing legal standoff with the agency.

This isn’t the first time SEC deliberations on crypto assets have made headlines. The same document dump also revealed how, in 2023, the New York State Attorney General had formally asked the SEC to declare Ethereum’s Ether (ETH) a security — a request that was ultimately ignored.