- The legal dispute of Ripple ended with the clarification of the classification of XRP and strengthens the view of the decentrality of the tokens.
- 75,000 investors see XRP as a decentralized system, which puts concerns about the influence of ripple – but XRP is, so to speak, centrally decentralized.
The five-year legal dispute between Ripple and the US stock exchange supervision SEC ended in the matter on May 8, 2025 with the fact that Ripple has to pay a comparatively low fine and-which is much more important, legal clarity is that XRP is not considered a securities when selling on secondary sleeves. This decision has strongly influenced public opinion on whether XRP is centralized or not.
John Deaton, a well-known crypto lawyer, recently shared his thoughts on this topic. On June 26th posted He on X and emphasized the global range of XRP:
“Politicians learn soundbites and rarely understand the technology. Many people confuse the centralization/concentration of tokens with the decentralization of the network. Some argue, for example, that XRP is not decentralized because Ripple has 40% of XRP tokens.”
But 75k XRP holder, … https://t.co/MueEzmx5xr
– John e Dealon (@Johnedeaton1) June 26, 2025
Critics have long pointed out to the control of Ripple over almost 40 % of the XRP offer as proof of centralization. It was believed that Ripple could dictate the network or the market by simply checking so much. However, this view ignores how the XRP Ledger works.
Ripple has to make decisions with 80% validator votes
The XRP Ledger uses a consensus protocol that is not based on mining. It uses more than 150 autonomous validators to secure the network. Ripple himself controls one of these validators. Changes to the Ledger must be approved by 80 % of these examiners for two weeks. In this way, it is impossible for Ripple to enforce changes or make decisions in the network alone.
In addition to preventing proof-of-work mining frameworks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, the XRP setup excludes control of the mining pool as an option. This structure adds another level of decentralization. By distributing the validators to different regions and their operation through independent authorities, the decision -making process is outside the control of a single instance.
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO von Ripple, also advocated using decentralization as the only quality criterion. He said that the exclusive concentration on decentralization ignores other important aspects such as security, usefulness and transparency of the protocol. Although Ripple holds a large amount of XRP, the company cannot carry out control over rule changes or check transactions.
75,000 investors in 143 countries see no too strong central control
The SEC lawsuit, which began at the end of 2020, shaped the narrative against Ripple and XRP for years. The supervisory authority accused Ripple to sell XRP as a non -registered security, which caused doubts about the status and the future of the digital asset. Now that the case has been completed and the judgment is in favor of Ripple, the clarity about the classification of XRP is greater than ever.
The mood turned after the court confirmed the decentralized status of XRP, which strengthened confidence via XRP as a non-company-bound digital asset. Control over the range of coins has nothing to do with control over the network, which is determined by independent Validiers and a general agreement.
Conclusion: XRP is, so to speak, a centrally decentralized asset with 75,000 owners in 143 countries.
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