Ripple applies for UK regulator registration

Ripple has filed an application with the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for registration as a cryptocurrency company. Cointelegraph, citing a company spokesperson, reports.

According to him, as part of its regional expansion Ripple also plans to obtain a payment licence in Ireland.

The filing for FCA registration followed the firm’s partial victory in its lawsuit with the SEC. The regulator filed a lawsuit against the company in December 2020, accusing Ripple of distributing unregistered securities valued at about $1.3 billion in the form of the platform’s native tokens.

On July 13, 2023, Judge Analisa Torres ruled, that selling XRP directly to institutional investors violated SEC rules, while offerings to retail investors on exchanges did not.

Regulators, during consideration of case against Terraform Labs and its CEO Do Kwon, asked the judge not to take Ripple’s decision into account, as it could be appealed.

According to Ripple’s attorney John Deaton, the appeal is unlikely to be a serious setback for the company. The appellate court will require up to two years to issue a verdict. In the meantime, Judge Torres’s ruling will remain in effect, the lawyer said.

In October 2022, the UK government was led by Rishi Sunak. In his former role as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he was noted for a friendly stance toward digital assets. In April 2022, the politician said he aimed to turn the country into a “global hub for crypto-technology”.

Before the end of the year, the FCA had approved licences for cryptocurrency companies for players such as Kraken and MoonPay.

In 2023, expansion into the British market was announced by Gemini co-founders the Winklevoss twins and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

In June, the FCA added the Bitcoin exchange Bitstamp to the register, and Binance’s local subsidiary cancelled its registration.