In case it loses the legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Ripple, a San Francisco-based company, is prepared to relocate abroad, according to CEO Brad Garlinghouse.
At the Collision conference in Toronto, Garlinghouse warned his company might leave the United States if the XRP lawsuit is unsuccessful. The CEO declared, “It’s not that we could, it’s that we will.
The SEC has filed a lawsuit against Ripple, alleging that the company violated securities laws when it sold investors the cryptocurrency XRP. The fiery complaint aims to determine if XRP is a security or not.
However, Ripple insists that despite owning a sizable portion of the XRP coins, the network that settles XRP transactions is entirely decentralized. The cross-border payments business anticipates the matter will be resolved next year, as previously reported. The ongoing lawsuit, according to Garlinghouse, is progressing “exceedingly well” compared to his expectations.
However, if it loses, it will concentrate on expanding its business abroad. Since the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple in December 2020 and listed Brad Garlinghouse and executive chairman Chris Larsen as defendants, this is essentially how the business has been conducting itself. Over 150 engineers and staff members from Ripple just opened an office in Toronto, Canada.
The crypto industry may be made or broken by the Ripple Case.
Just behind bitcoin and ethereum, XRP had long held the No. 3 position in the cryptocurrency rankings. Strong partnerships between Ripple and well-known banks and payment processors had been formed. While cryptocurrency exchanges hurried to remove the XRP coin from their systems, the lawsuit tarnished the company’s brand and led to the termination of several of these agreements.In theory, winning the case would encourage additional US-based businesses to partner with Ripple, which would lead to the business’s expansion. Given that the United States is the biggest economy in the world, leaving would seriously impede the company’s overall growth.
Industry observers have emphasized that the lawsuit will not only determine the firm’s survival, but also the future of the whole crypto industry by setting a precedent for how crypto assets will be regulated in the United States.
More cryptocurrency businesses might leave the United States for other, more welcoming countries if Ripple loses.
As soon as the $1.3 billion dispute with the SEC is resolved, Ripple plans to investigate an IPO.
