Ripple played Trump to pump XRP — now he’s cutting ties
A scoop by Politico on Thursday revealed the cause of an intraday price surge of XRP on March 2.
That morning, XRP was charting in a tight range around $2.23. However, at 10:24am, Donald Trump announced that he would create a US “crypto strategic reserve,” including XRP and two other altcoins, and within 75 minutes, XRP had rallied 24% to $3 per token.
In other words, thanks to Trump’s blessing, XRP had gained $44 billion in 75 minutes to hit a market capitalization of $173 billion.
Trump would later add a follow-up post to his XRP announcement, adding bitcoin (BTC) and ether to the list of XRP, ADA, and SOL for a total of five named assets. By that point, though, the market had already traded higher for one reason.
Everyone knew that Trump’s pick of XRP as one of only three named digital assets in his first post was the reason for XRP’s $44 billion rally.
What wasn’t known at the time, however, was Ripple’s behind-the-scenes maneuvering that made that Truth Social post happen.
A weekend lobbyist won over Trump, scored $44 billion for XRP
According to Politico, a female employee of Brian Ballard’s lobbying company drafted a Truth Social post, repeatedly asked in person at Mar-a-Lago, and ultimately convinced Trump to publish it via his staffer.
Ripple was a client of Ballard’s company at that time.
Trump eventually learned of this unspoken conflict of interest and distanced himself from Ballard and his employee, Susie Wiles. Anonymous sources said the incident infuriated Trump. He instructed his staff that Ballard “is not welcome in anything anymore.”
Protos reached out to Ripple for comment on Ballard Partners but didn’t receive a reply prior to publication.
As the above chart illustrates, the maneuver benefited Ripple tremendously. Ballard’s company was annualizing less than $60 million in revenue when its actions helped XRP rally $44 billion. The value was unmistakable.
Eventually, Trump tried to course-correct by relegating XRP to a sell-only stockpile and choosing BTC alone for the nation’s ability to purchase new coins. Of all people, Trump certainly hates feeling used.
Nevertheless, the price of XRP has quadrupled since Trump became president, so the political benefit has clearly not worn off entirely.
Read more: Trump confused by Strategic Bitcoin Reserve he just ordered
Politics has been great for XRP
The incident wasn’t the first time XRP has benefited from political events. Ripple and its executives have been political donors for years.
On November 15, 2024, XRP rallied 17% intraday on unconfirmed reporting that Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse met with then-President-elect Trump.
XRP also directly benefited from Trump’s promise to fire Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler. On March 19, XRP experienced a significant price surge after Garlinghouse announced that the SEC would drop its multi-year lawsuit against Ripple.
Of course, Ripple hasn’t always been Republican-aligned, despite its recent lobbying efforts to benefit from the Trump 2.0 administration.
Prior to Trump, many people viewed Ripple not as red but as Democrat blue. Indeed, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen personally donated $11 million worth of XRP to Kamala Harris’ campaign.
On July 13, 2023, Barack Obama-nominated US District Judge Analisa Torres changed Gary Gensler’s career forever. Torres forced Gensler, who was overseeing a landmark securities violation lawsuit against Ripple, to take a decisive step back as he wound down his tenure towards his ultimate resignation ahead of Trump’s promise to fire him.
On that day, Torres ruled that certain sales of XRP weren’t securities, causing the market cap of XRP to double intraday from $25 to $50 billion.
In his last filing as SEC head, Gensler wrote that he still thought many XRP transactions were a securities offerings. Then he quit.
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