Brad Garlinghouse: XRP Will Continue Trading Even if Ripple Goes Away
With the impending legal battle between the SEC and Ripple, the CEO of the payment processor said that XRP will endure even if the company doesn’t.
Simultaneously, Jesse Powell, the CEO of the veteran US exchange, Kraken, believes that offering XRP trading carries “huge asymmetrical risk.”
XRP Will Endure, Says Ripple CEO
Ever since the US Securities and Exchange Commission brought charges against Ripple for conducting an unregistered security offering, the company’s executives have tried to defend their position multiple times.
During the latest such attempt, the CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, called the lawsuit “misguided” and noted that XRP had traded in the US for eight years before the allegations emerged.
Furthermore, he laid his case on why Ripple’s native token is not a security and promised that the asset will survive even if Ripple ceases to exist.
“If you own a security, it gives you ownership of a company. If Ripple goes away, XRP will continue trading.”
Garlinghouse explained that numerous other countries, such as Singapore, Switzerland, and Japan, all have “clarity and certainty” that XRP is not a security. In contrast, the US is “the only country on the planet that has suggested that XRP is a security.”
Consequently, the executive doubled-down on a previous narrative stating that the lawsuit against Ripple is “bad” for the entire cryptocurrency industry, not just the payment processor. This is pushing entrepreneurs to seek other options as they plan to leave the US.
It’s worth noting that Ripple is one of those companies that contemplated moving outside the US even before the SEC’s charges became official.
Trading XRP Carries Asymmetrical Risk
While Garlinghouse believes that XRP will continue trading even if Ripple is no more, Kraken’s CEO recently highlighted the potential “asymmetrical” risks for exchanges during these uncertain times for the token.
He assumed that the Commission has acted in “good faith” when bringing the charges and believes that judges ultimately “tend to side with agencies.”
As such, Powell asserted that if the SEC wins, then the watchdog would “say that exchanges should have known.”
Huge asymmetrical risk for exchanges. Have to assume SEC’s case is in good faith. Judges tend to side with agencies. If XRP found to be a security, SEC would say that exchanges should have known. Safe harbor pending outcome would have been responsible if only purpose is to “test” https://t.co/KnA71Bebg0
— Jesse Powell (@jespow) March 6, 2021
Although Kraken took its time before making it official, the veteran US exchange joined the list of trading venues that removed XRP in January this year.
