Ripple sued by US SEC for selling unlicensed securities (XRP)

Quick take

1 minute read

• The United States security and exchange commission is getting ready to slap a lawsuit against ripple.

• The lawsuit comes as the company has been allegedly selling unlicensed securities in the form of its native token, XRP.

The United States security and exchange commission is getting ready to slap a lawsuit against the San Francisco-based blockchain initiative known as Ripple. The lawsuit comes as the company has been allegedly selling unlicensed securities in the form of its native token.

As a result of the lawsuit and legal battle ahead for the company, the chief executive officer of the blockchain company, Brad Garlinghouse took to Twitter saying that the commission is attacking crypto. He further said:

We know crypto and blockchain technologies aren’t going anywhere. Ripple has and will continue to use XRP because it is the best digital asset for payments - speed, cost, scalability and energy efficiency. It’s traded on 200+ exchanges globally and will continue to thrive. (2/3)

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) December 22, 2020

Due to the decentralized nature of bitcoin and ethereum, they have been lucky enough to invade the grasp of the securities commission. But for XRP, it has been a big topic of conversation throughout the community as many have argued that it is a “highly centralised“ asset.

The company itself has an escrow account of around 50 billion of the tokens which is a big reason why many believe that the asset is nothing but centralised.

The company has said time and time again now that the token is very much decentralised.

And despite all the controversy, ripple is one of the biggest crypto companies in the industry. Not to mention one of the richest.

The company has responded to the lawsuit in a Wells submission explaining that side of the story. Start off with, they say:

“The SEC’s theory, that XRP is an investment contract, is wrong on the facts, the law and the equities.”

They add in the document:

"By alleging that Ripple’s distributions of XRP are investment contracts while maintaining that bitcoin and ether are not securities, the Commission is picking virtual currency winners and losers, destroying U.S.-based, consumer-friendly innovation in the process."

Even with a security designation for the token, the CEO believes that the company will still be able to grow. They are currently looking outside of the United States for a new headquarters due to the clarity of regulation in the US is significantly cloudy as it stands.

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