Brad Garlinghouse announced when the company will respond to allegations of selling unlisted securities for $1.3 billion but dodged the question on allegations whether the start-up paid exchanges to list the XRP token.
Ripple is not going to back down and in the coming weeks will provide a response to the “unsubstantiated” allegations of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), stated the head of the company Brad Garlinghouse on his Twitter account. In late December, the regulator filed a lawsuit against the blockchain start-up for the sale of unregistered securities for $1.3 billion under the guise of their own XRP crypto tokens. In this context, the cryptocurrency rate crashed from $0.52 to $0.18, then recovered to $0.32.
The Controversy
Garlinghouse evasively answered the question of whether the company paid the crypto exchanges to list the XRP token. He wrote that the token is among the leading digital assets in terms of liquidity, and 95% of trades with it take place outside the United States. The start-up has no control over which platforms XRP is added to, as it represents a decentralized system. In a separate tweet, the founder of the Messari analytical service Ryan Selkis drew attention to the fact that Garlinghouse did not adequately address the question and reiterated it.
Many exchanges have started delisting or stopped trading XRP following the filing of the SEC lawsuit. Garlinghouse noted that most companies do not refuse to work with the token but rather suspend it for the time being. Furthermore, the head of the company said that in the United States there is “chaos” regarding the regulation of cryptocurrencies. According to him, 8 different departments have different, sometimes opposite views of the digital asset market, which inevitably leads to regulatory conflicts.
Resolving the Lawsuit?
Garlinghouse said the company was trying to negotiate with the SEC and resolve the conflict before the lawsuit opens in court. It will continue to work in this direction with the new leadership of the commission, but the process of resolving the conflict will be slow, the businessman concluded.
At the end of December, it became known that preliminary hearings in the SEC case against Ripple will be held on February 22, 2021. They will be conducted online. By February 15, the parties can send proposals for the settlement of the claim behind closed doors.
