Brad Garlinghouse: XRP recognised as a security would not derail Ripple’s business

CEO Ripple Brad Garlinghouse expressed confidence that the company he leads would continue to develop under a hypothetical scenario in which the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would recognise the native XRP token as a security.

In a new Morgan Creek partner Anthony Pompliano podcast, Garlinghouse questioned whether the U.S. regulator’s stance is shared by other G20 countries.

Garlinghouse said that 90% of RippleNet users are outside the United States. This reduces the risk of problems if there is a need to register XRP as a security.

In October, the company’s co-founder Chris Larsen floated the option of moving Ripple to Europe or Asia due to the ‘horrendous lag’ of U.S. cryptocurrency regulation relative to other countries.

As reported, Ripple has been in litigation with former investors for two years. They allege that the company sold unregistered securities disguised as XRP tokens.

In May 2020, Bitcoin Manipulation Abatement LLC filed a new suit against the company, alleging that Ripple and its head Brad Garlinghouse violated federal securities laws.

Ripple’s lawyers are attempting to challenge the allegations, pointing to the lack of grounds on the part of the plaintiffs.

Former head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Gary Gensler said in 2018 that XRP should be recognised as a security. In November, the former official led the transition team for financial policy of President-elect Joe Biden.

In the latter part of November, XRP displayed heightened volatility. On 22 November the token price surpassed the highest level since September 2018 of $0.4974. Two days later the token briefly reached $0.78, up 225% since the start of November.

At the time of publication XRP was trading around $0.55.

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