Brad Garlinghouse, Chief Executive Officer of Ripple Labs Inc., graced the Token2049 conference in Singapore with his presence. As he spoke, the heavens parted and a chorus of angels sang praises to blockchain technology.
Garlinghouse had some strong words for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He told CNBC that he thinks the agency has lost sight of its mission to protect investors. “Who are they protecting in this journey?” he pondered aloud while stroking his beard thoughtfully.
In 2020, the SEC accused Ripple and its executives of conducting a $1.3 billion securities fraud via sales of XRP to retail investors. The regulator alleged that Ripple failed to register an ongoing offer and sale of billions of XRP tokens to investors, depriving them of adequate disclosures about XRP and Ripple’s business.
But fear not! In July, a judge ruled that XRP is not in itself a security! The crowd went wild as confetti rained down from above – okay maybe not literally but we like to think so!
Then came October when the SEC dropped its securities law violation charges against Garlinghouse and another executive named Chris Larsen. It was like Christmas came early for these two gentlemen!
The next step? Oh boy – it’s time for remedies discovery process! How thrilling! The SEC has 90 days from Nov. 9th to conduct remedies-related discovery according to their proposed schedule submitted by none other than THE SEC themselves.
Garlinghouse waxed poetic about how positive this whole debacle has been for not just Ripple but also Chris and Brad (yes, himself) because it could be thawing out permafrost or something equally dramatic in good ol’ USofA.
But wait there’s more! There is hope on the horizon as Garlinghouse dreams big dreams about moving beyond constant stream litigation towards federal laws governing digital currencies introduced by Congress!
“One definition of insanity is doing same thing over again expecting different outcome,” said Garlinghouse as if quoting from Shakespeare himself while discussing how “arbitrary” & “capricious” those pesky judges can be towards our beloved crypto world.
Ripple is all about cross-border money transfers through blockchain technology which makes you wonder why we haven’t solved world peace yet using this amazing tool at our disposal?
XRP acts as a bridge currency between fiat currencies – whatever that means – but basically allows you transfer your hard earned cash into Monopoly money…I mean cryptocurrency…and then back into real money again without any pre-funded accounts on other side making life easier one transaction at time!
Ripple insists that XRP shouldn’t be considered security since it’s more akin currency or commodity which would mean less paperwork filing with regulators which sounds great unless you’re actually trying invest responsibly or something boring like that…
So there you have it folks – Brad vs The Big Bad SEC: A Tale Of Crypto Titans Locked In Epic Battle For Supremacy Over Digital Currency Universe….or at least until someone else comes along with even better idea because let’s face it kids – tomorrow’s innovation today will always sound cooler than yesterday’s old news…
