I just saw a pretty interesting story. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse got a tattoo of the XRP logo after turning 50, with the date marked—July 13, 2023. This date is significant for Ripple because on that day, the court ruled that Ripple's sale of XRP to institutional investors violated securities laws, but dismissed the charges related to retail sales.

A Twitter user asked him why a Harvard MBA would make such a decision, especially when the lawsuit with the SEC isn't fully resolved yet. Brad Garlinghouse's response was just one word: 1000%. That attitude is indeed very firm. He clearly has confidence in XRP's future, and expressing his long-term commitment to the project through a tattoo.

What is the background behind this? Ripple and the SEC have been in litigation since December 2020, accusing Ripple of securities law violations. After years of back-and-forth, there has finally been a turn of events recently. Last week, Brad Garlinghouse announced that Ripple would withdraw its cross-appeal, and the SEC is also expected to withdraw its appeal. The court previously rejected their joint request to reduce the $125 million fine, but this did not change a core fact—the legal status of XRP as a non-security is clear. Ripple's General Counsel Stuart Alderoty emphasized that regardless of the path forward, XRP's legal status will not change, and the company's operations will continue as usual.

Interestingly, while Brad Garlinghouse's tattoo shows his loyalty, Ripple's technical team is also accelerating development. RippleX recently released version 2.5.0 of the XRP Ledger, bringing several important upgrades. The XLS-85 fix allows the escrow system to support tokens issued by third parties, including stablecoins, which is a big step for enterprise applications. XLS-56 fix is even more powerful, enabling the merging of up to 8-step transactions into a single operation, significantly reducing errors in complex transactions.

The timing of these upgrades is also quite good. The activity on the XRP Ledger has noticeably increased, with daily active addresses jumping from an average of 35k to over 295k, a substantial growth. Currently, XRP's circulating market cap has reached $85.9 billion, with the price around $1.39. From the easing of legal pressures to continuous technological iteration, Ripple is indeed moving in a positive direction. Brad Garlinghouse's tattoo might just be betting that this trend will continue.