Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has revealed that his company is spending $200 million defending itself against the SEC in its lawsuit over xrp. The executive expects a decision on the lawsuit in three to six months. “If we win the lawsuit, it’ll be clear what xrp is, but the rest of the industry is still going to be unclear. And the whole crypto industry needs regulatory clarity in the U.S. to really thrive,” said the Ripple boss.
Ripple’s CEO Shares New Info on SEC Lawsuit Over XRP
The CEO of Ripple Labs, Brad Garlinghouse, has provided some new information regarding his company’s ongoing legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
During a fireside chat with CNBC at the Dubai Fintech Summit on Monday, Garlinghouse revealed that when the lawsuit is concluded, Ripple would have spent $200 million in total to defend itself against the securities regulator. The executive shared:
With the SEC, we will spend — this is the first time I’ve shared this publicly — by the time all’s said and done, we will have spent $200 million defending ourselves against a lawsuit, which from its very beginning, people were like, well, this doesn’t make a lot of sense.
The securities watchdog sued him, Ripple, and co-founder Chris Larsen in December 2020 alleging that they raised over $1.3 billion through an unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering. Ripple, Garlinghouse, and Larsen have maintained that XRP is not a security.
Commenting on U.S. crypto regulations, Garlinghouse stated that as a U.S. citizen and CEO of a company that started in the U.S.: “It’s sad. I have sadness about this.”
The Ripple executive explained that other countries, such as Dubai, Singapore, and Switzerland, are getting ahead of the U.S. and will emerge as global financial capitals due to their regulatory clarity. “The U.S. is getting passed, not just a little bit, but by a lot … The tough thing about this is you have a country that, I think, put politics ahead of policies. That’s not a good decision if you’re trying to invest in the economy,” he stressed, adding:
You have video footage of the chair of the SEC, as a professor at MIT, saying 75% of these digital assets are commodities. And now he says they’re all securities because he’s the head of the SEC and he’s seeking power and he’s putting power ahead of sound policy to grow an economy in the United States.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has been accused of taking an enforcement-centric approach to regulating the crypto industry. There have also been widespread complaints that the SEC does not provide clear regulatory guidelines, making it difficult for companies in the crypto space to ensure compliance. In addition, Gensler has said several times that most crypto tokens other than bitcoin are securities.
In an interview with The National, published Monday, Garlinghouse opined: “But even after the lawsuit, the U.S. needs to provide clear rules of the road and regulatory clarity. The lawsuit will help. Other countries around the world will be ahead of where the U.S. is in adopting blockchain technologies.” The Ripple executive noted:
If we win the lawsuit, it’ll be clear what XRP is, but the rest of the industry is still going to be unclear. And the whole crypto industry needs regulatory clarity in the U.S. to really thrive.
Regarding Ripple’s legal battle with the SEC, Garlinghouse said: “One of the silver linings for Ripple is we’re at the end of our journey … We’re two and a half years into this lawsuit. We should have a decision pretty soon.” According to Garlinghouse, a decision on the lawsuit could come in three to six months.
The Ripple CEO also shared at the summit that Ripple is expanding in Dubai. “With 20% of our customers based in MENA [Middle East and North Africa] and clear regulatory regimes being developed, it’s no surprise that Dubai is emerging as a key global financial hub for crypto innovation to thrive,” he tweeted.
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