Crypto analyst Pumpius has sparked a debate after claiming the long-running Ripple vs. SEC case was never an actual fight, but a carefully staged distraction. He says the fintech company and its backers crafted the “David vs. Goliath” image of battling U.S. regulators to hide its fundamental mission, building U.S.-backed global payment rails under the cover of regulatory conflict. The SEC Case Was A Smokescreen For Government-Backed Expansion Pumpius argues that Ripple was never the outsider many believed it to be. From the beginning, it built its technology for banks and institutions, not retail traders or hobbyists. It offered near-zero fees, instant settlement, and compliance with the ISO 20022 messaging standard before it was even required, the kind of features built for large-scale financial infrastructure. He says this is not the profile of a garage startup fighting the system, but of a network designed to replace SWIFT, the global payments messaging system. He says Ripple’s partner list shows its link to the government. These include Federal Reserve pilot projects, central banks in Bhutan, Palau, and Montenegro, payment corridors in the Middle East and Asia, and relationships with U.S. defense-linked banks such as BNY Mellon. To Pumpius, this is a footprint of sanctioned expansion, not rogue innovation. The lawsuit with the SEC , in his view, served as the perfect cover. While news headlines painted Ripple as “in trouble,” the company quietly signed over 1,700 contracts and NDAs with major financial institutions. Many of these were with foreign partners, creating the appearance that the company was “fleeing” the U.S. In reality, Pumpius says, this was part of a blueprint to open payment corridors abroad first, then bring the infrastructure back to the U.S. once it was ready. XRPL As Washington’s Blockchain: From Money To Identity Control According to Pumpius, the endgame goes far beyond payments. He claims the U.S. intends to use XRPL as the backbone of a blockchain-based reserve network, shifting control from traditional banking systems to a government-linked ledger. A key part of this plan, he says, is RLUSD , Ripple’s stablecoin “pilot.” It is fully U.S.-compliant, designed for institutional custody, and connects directly to the XRPL. Once activated, RLUSD could serve as the domestic bridge asset, while XRP handles global settlements. If the XRPL can move money, it can also move any asset, including sensitive identity information like DNA. Tokenizing bio-data, he warns, would give whoever controls the ledger influence not just over finance, but over personal identity itself. The idea is to make a project look like it is resisting the system, allow it to grow freely outside the spotlight , and then reveal its accurate alignment once the infrastructure is too entrenched to oppose. By the time the public understands the scope of the network, Pumpius says, the rails are already in place. In his view, Ripple built global financial rails under the guise of fighting regulators, while the U.S. ensured the technology would work seamlessly at home. From payments to real-world assets and eventually identity data, the XRPL could become the state’s blockchain arm. For Pumpius, the lawsuit was never the battle; the expansion was the mission.