Will XRP Be the Crypto That Powers X.com?

With XRP now a giant of crypto, at a whopping $145 billion market cap, will they take aim at MoneyGram again, or someone else?

Author

Adam Atlantic
January 14, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

Case 1:20-cv-10832 in the District Court, Southern District of New York is where it all started on December 22, 2020.[1] 

The case, Securities and Exchange Commission v. Ripple Labs Inc., one of the biggest in the history of crypto.

This has the SEC arguing that Ripple Labs (XRP), CEO Brad Garlinghouse and founder Chris Larsen engaged in an unregistered securities offering raising $1.3 billion in the sale of XRP crypto.

The crux of this case… was XRP a security?

Four years later and the answer is yes, and no.

The court ruled that XRP was not a security when sales were via exchanges. But XRP was a security when sales were via institutional channels. So according to the courts, XRP is a security in a certain context, and not in another context.

Don’t you just love the clarity of the courts…

The $50 million XRP and MoneyGram Deal

This saga got in the way of one of the most significant deals in crypto, when Ripple (as it was known back then) and MoneyGram saw a key partnership fall apart.

The deal was struck in 2019, when Ripple invested $30 million in MoneyGram at $4.10 per share. It also included future purchases of $20 million at $4.10 or over.[2]

But thanks to the SEC lawsuit, it all fell apart in March 2021.[3] The SEC case, MoneyGram in the sights of a class-action lawsuit for using XRP, it all just became too much.

Eventually in June 2023, MoneyGram was taken over by private equity with a $1.8 billion valuation at $11 per share.[4]

Today, the dust is settling on XRP and its SEC dramas.

While the SEC appealed, the case may fall away as Trump takes office and new SEC chair, Paul Atkins, takes over.

If so, with XRP now a giant of crypto, at a $145 billion market cap, will it take aim at MoneyGram again, or someone else? Perhaps Western Union, or PayPal.

Or is there something else in store for XRP in the shape of Elon Musk?

XRP & X.com?

Ripple already took a shot at MoneyGram. And thanks to the SEC’s, ‘enforce first, ask questions later,’ approach under outgoing chair, Gary Gensler, it all fell apart.

But now, the future looks a little clearer under a Trump administration and Atkins-led SEC. Does that mean XRP sets their sights again on the incumbent money transfer and remittance companies?

It would make sense to see XRP strike a deal with Western Union. This would also give XRP more clout to make another play at MoneyGram.

However, having also recently launched its own stablecoin, the RLUSD, it may sidestep both of them. That might mean a direct strike at PayPal’s business, with the view to buying the payments giant down the track.

Or as (wild and purely speculative) rumors might suggest,[5] Elon Musk looks to XRP as the foundations of X Money/X Payments which X.com is rolling out in 2025.[6]

Either outcome here would be immense for XRP. But at the same time, none of these outcomes are possible too. XRP might just build its network so large and dominant, it won’t need MoneyGram, Western Union, PayPal or X.com.

What is certain though, is that a pro-crypto, reformed SEC under Atkins, and a Trump-led U.S. government is likely good for XRP, and good for crypto.

Trust in crypto,
Adam Atlantic