The SEC complained against Ripple Laboratories Inc. CEO Bradley Garlinghouse and co-founder Christian Larsen on Dec 22, 2020, alleging that they issued over $1.3 billion in XRP cryptocurrency, which was said to be unlicensed security. Many exchanges began to stop or halt XRP trading one week following the SEC lawsuit as to what was going on in the XRP ecosystem, according to Coinbase. Reports pymnts.com
Garlinghouse and Larsen wrote to Judge Sarah Netburn in March 2021, requesting that the Ripple versus ‘SEC’ litigation be dismissed owing to “fair notice and due process.” A few days later, Netburn notified the SEC stated XRP is different from Ether and Bitcoin for its utility.
Following Judge Netburn’s response, Ripple began requesting Bitcoin and Ether papers to aid its cause. Brad Garlinghouse claimed in November 2021 that Ripple was making “excellent progress” and that the matter could be over by 2022.
The SEC’s main argument is that XRP is a security, not a currency, and thus is subject to rigorous securities rules. XRP, according to Ripple, is a virtual currency rather than an investment contract.
CEO of Ripple is Confident
Despite these huge headwinds from the SEC — and frankly, shedding some customers as a result of the SEC litigation,” Garlinghouse told Protocol, “we grew incredibly fast, and we feel like we’re entering 2022 in a wonderful position of strength.”
Although Ripple believes XRP is not a security, it has been delisted by multiple exchanges, including Coinbase, as a result of the litigation.
Financial service providers can now send cross-border payments at a lower cost thanks to Ripple’s services. On-Demand Liquidity, a solution offered by the corporation, assists with cross-border payments.
Ripple’s most recent private firm valuation was $10 billion. GV, Alphabet’s venture capital arm, as well as SBI Holdings and Andreessen Horowitz from Japan, are among the company’s backers.
Ripple had recently pointed to certain other currencies like bitcoin, questioning why they had been spared from the SEC’s restrictions, despite the litigation having been ongoing since 2020.
Crypto has gotten the attention of regulators, and the most unregulated market continues to make headlines. Individual countries are still working out the laws they want for digital assets, thus there is now an effort underway to create a more global framework for digital assets.
