Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse says that the firm’s court case with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will conclude in the near future.
In December 2020, Ripple was sued by the SEC on the grounds of allegedly selling XRP as an unregistered security.
During an interview with Tai Panich, the CEO of SCB 10X, a technology investment firm, Garlinghouse expressed his belief that Ripple’s success in the ongoing lawsuit will have significant implications for the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. Based on recent developments relating to the SEC’s former Director of Corporate Finance William Hinman and his speech declaring Ethereum (ETH) a non-security, Garlinghouse says he expects a court decision in weeks, rather than months.
“In terms of where things stand today – I’ll try to not get too much into the legal weeds – you are right that I feel very confident that we’ll see a decision from the courts this year. In fact, I think I would guess that it will be in weeks, not months. There were some decisions that happened last week that you may have read about. The judge ruled against the SEC’s effort to redact certain information, a very kind of infamous speech that the then Director of Corporate Finance Bill Hinman gave, talking about why ETH, in his view, is not a security.
The court just ruled last week that the notes in the emails associated with that are going to be made public, and should be public around June 13th. So I think that’s a huge win for transparency. But what it really calls out is, there really hasn’t been clarity, despite calls and demands from leaders across the crypto industry.”
The Ripple CEO remains committed to completing the fight but acknowledges that the ongoing conflict with the SEC and the absence of clear regulations in the US have resulted in many industry players relocating or outsourcing.
“Ripple decided to lean in and fight this fight, both for Ripple and the whole industry. We’ve spent a lot of money defending it. And I think what we’ve called out is the government in the United States, and the SEC particularly, is putting politics ahead of smart policy. Because of that, you’re seeing entrepreneurs going overseas, you’re seeing companies like Ripple – most of our hiring is non-US now. Most of our customers… are non-US. I think it’s kind of to be expected that’s what’s going to happen.”
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