All news is rigorously fact-checked and reviewed by leading blockchain experts and seasoned industry insiders.
- According to CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple tried to settle with the SEC before the securities lawsuit, without success.
- A response from Ripple’s legal team to the lawsuit is expected to be sent to the SEC “within a few weeks.”
After the securities lawsuit by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the original statement by Ripple became known, it was initially quiet in both camps. However, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and General Counsel Stuart Alderoty have now broken the silence and answered a few questions about the SEC lawsuit via Twitter.
Garlinghouse wrote that he would not “litigate the SEC’s unproven allegations on Twitter” because, “as you can imagine, there are new considerations to what can / should be said publicly after the litigation process starts.” However, he said he wanted to address “5 key issues.”
Among them was why Ripple did not settle with the SEC in advance. In a tweet, Garlinghouse referred to Ripple’s attempt to settle the lawsuit, stating:
Can’t get into specifics, but know we tried – and will continue to try w/ the new administration – to resolve this in a way so the XRP community can continue innovating, consumers are protected and orderly markets are preserved.
Regarding the way forward, Garlinghouse revealed that “there is plenty happening behind the scenes” and a response to the lawsuit will be filed “in the next few weeks.” Alderoty added:
To all asking for updates on the SEC lawsuit: no surprise, the legal process takes time! We may be quiet but we are not idle. Our full legal team will announce themselves shortly and we’ll be filing our initial response to the SEC’s unproven allegations within weeks.
Likewise, Garlinghouse commented on whether investors have lost confidence in Ripple as a result of the SEC’s action. The Ripple CEO was presumably addressing the concerns of some community members who fear an initial domino in Tetragon’s lawsuit against Ripple for stock redemption. BG countered that, however, saying in response to the vote of confidence, “Yes, we have real shareholders.”
Did Ripple pay exchanges and partners?
Aside from that, BG also addressed whether Ripple paid exchanges to list XRP and when exchanges will start offering XRP for trading to U.S. customers again. The Garlinghouse negated the former question, saying that his company has “no control over” where XRP was listed.
Garlinghouse indirectly answered the second part of the question by saying that “most” exchanges have only suspended trading. Accordingly, it can be assumed that any resumption of trading by the affected exchanges will not occur until the SEC issues a final decision.
Further, Garlinghouse also revealed no secret when he wrote that Ripple offered incentives in the form of payments to some partners, such as MoneyGram, to adapt On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) and XRP. Ripple’s CEO wrote in a tweet:
We have provided some customers, especially first movers, w/ incentives to use ODL – this is building a payments network 101 (and totally lawful). Every payments network (PayPal, Visa, MC, etc) has or still uses incentives.
We built a product that is the FIRST of its kind – integrating new infra comes with costs. ODL w/ XRP solves real problems with cost, speed, and settlement and that’s proven to the tune of billions of dollars.
