Ripple CEO Says Company May Go Public After The SEC Lawsuit
Last Updated on 27 May 2021 by CryptoTips.eu
Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse on 26 May hinted that the company could go public “at some point”. During a talk at the Consensus Conference organized by CoinDesk, Garlinghouse said the chance is very high that Ripple will become a public company eventually.
Following the announcement, XRP, the cryptocurrency issued by Ripple surged by 14%, bringing its price back above $1. XRP is currently the 6th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and has gained significantly on the market this year, despite the fact that the company has been in court. The SEC alleges that XRP is a security and Ripple’s token sales in 2017 was illegal.
Going public depends on outcome of case
Although Ripple XRP has been doing well in 2021 in spite of the ongoing case, the CEO says the possibility of Ripple going public depends securely on the outcome of the case. This according to him is because the SEC is ultimately responsible for approving the company going public, so its victory in court is the only guarantee that it will go public.
So far, Ripple has insisted that XRP is not a security but a currency like Bitcoin or Ethereum, and the public sale was legal. Although the company has seen some victory such as the court barring the SEC from seeing Ripple’s transaction history, the final outcome still remains uncertain and the future of the company and of XRP still hangs in the balance.
Lack of clear regulation holding Ripple back
Ripple has battled with the question of whether XRP is a security for years. Garlinghouse blames the lack of clear regulatory framework in the United States for the confusion. He has always emphasized this and blamed it for holding back the entire cryptocurrency market in the country, unlike in other advanced countries such as Japan and Korea where the industry is making great progress.
He mentioned towards the end of 2020 that the company was considering moving its headquarters to the UK where XRP is not considered to be a security. Meanwhile, Ripple is still developing new partnerships and use cases for XRP to make it more valuable in the future.