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Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse addressed questions over the sale of Ripple shares through Linqto, a private equity trading platform. Linqto is under investigation by both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) for its sales practices, which allegedly misled thousands of retail investors. Garlinghouse shared a statement to clarify Ripple’s position regarding its ties to the stock trading company.  “Understandably, there have been many questions from those who believed they were buying Ripple shares from Linqto, and what happens next,” the CEO wrote. He reiterated that the firm itself never sold shares to Linqto or had any formal business relationship with the platform. “What we know from our records is Linqto owns 4.7 million shares of Ripple, solely purchased on the secondary market from other Ripple shareholders (never directly from Ripple),” Garlinghouse continued. He added that Ripple stopped approving secondary market purchases by Linqto in late 2024 after questions were raised about the firm’s operations. Internal memos: Ripple share sales led to losses According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, Linqto’s former CEO, William “Bill” Sarris, was allegedly at the front of sales offloading Ripple shares to the platform’s 11,000 users, many of whom were retail investors unaware of what the company was. In January 2023, Sarris launched what he called a “Spike Day,” a sales campaign that could boost Ripple share sales. In internal emails reviewed by the Journal, Sarris asked employees to use every possible channel, including emails, ads, influencers, and even “smoke signals,” to push the sale.  He reportedly sold Ripple shares at a markup of over 60% without disclosing the pricing details to customers. The SEC generally flags price hikes above 10%. An outside law firm later reviewed the transactions and asserted that Linqto’s way of selling the equity could…

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Filed under: News - @ July 2, 2025 2:26 pm