The CEO of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse, stated an unfavorable outcome in the SEC lawsuit would not affect the company’s performance in any way.
CEO Talks SEC Lawsuit
Garlinghouse sat down with Bloomberg and spoke at length about his company’s legal battle with SEC that has been ongoing since December 2020. The main dispute in this lawsuit is whether or not XRP was sold to investors as an unregistered security, which lies in whether XRP is a security. According to Garlinghouse, the team has already assumed a worst-case scenario and is functioning accordingly.
XRP Flourishing Outside US
The SEC vs. Ripple trial has seen several twists and turns. One of the more noteworthy moments in the courtroom happened when judge Analisa Torres rejected motions filed by both the SEC and the Ripple team amidst other mostly-Ripple-favorable rulings dealt out in court.
Many US crypto exchanges were forced to remove XRP from their platforms because of the lawsuit, resulting in a loss of liquidity for XRP in the country. However, Garlinghouse pointed out that most of the company’s growth came from outside the country, as 95% of Ripple’s clients are payment providers based outside of the US. The CEO also revealed that the team has been focusing on its operations outside the country, and the company has been hiring prolifically outside of the US. Therefore despite the lawsuit crippling Ripple’s US operations, XRP is experiencing record growth solely based on its global operations.
CEO, Lawyer Call Out SEC
Garlinghouse pointed out that the demand for RippleNet has grown eight times in the one year from Q1 of 2021 till Q1 of 2022, which indicates that the trial proceedings have not deterred XRP’s growth. RippleNet, which is the core product offering from Ripple, is a global digital payments platform operating in over 55 countries.
Garlinghouse also called out the SEC’s over-scrutiny, saying,
“I just think it’s incredibly frustrating that here in the United States, where we have led innovation in so many different industries, we have an agency that’s overreaching and really constraining competitiveness and hiring people here in the United States.”
Other than the CEO, even John E. Deaton, one of Ripple’s attorneys fighting the lawsuit, has called out the SEC’s allegations as baseless.
He said,
“The SEC is making sh*t up as it goes. The war continues. I predicted an SEC lawsuit against one or more exchanges by the end of the summer. I still believe it.”
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
