XRP has been around since as early as 2013, and is a primary focus point of the San Francisco-based remittance firm, Ripple. Ripple has been dealing with a lawsuit where a disgruntle investor has alleged that Ripple sold unregistered securities in the form of XRP tokens. The catalyst for the lawsuit being when the entire cryptocurrency market corrected and XRP decreased from, $3 to about .25 cents.
Not a Security?
Garlinghouse recently took to twitter and reiterated his stance on XRP’s classification. He stressed that XRP has utility and can be used in different ways, similar to Ethereum.
1/ As a defendant in the class action lawsuit, I won’t get into the details (response from Ripple is coming soon). I will say: SEC guidance isn’t issued by the Commission and isn’t law, rule or regulation. It’s clear XRP is not a security and the UK and others have said as much.
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) August 27, 2019
3/ @Ripple continues to set industry standards in reporting and transparency (one example is our quarterly markets report). We lay it all out, and it’s not our “view” but fact. @business https://t.co/3Ng1udAABg @bloomberg
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) August 27, 2019
Will XRP be more than like be deemed a security?
- There has been mention of the SEC issuing “no action letters” to organizations, which Ripple could receive.
- Ripple has been involved with president Trump, executive order 13772, and they are a part of the “faster payments task force”
- The Federal Reserve has been working with Ripple/XRP on instant payments, since as early as 2016.
- SEC commissioner Hester M. Pierce gave her “opinion” on the stance on what “is and isn’t” a security, stating: When the tokens are not being sold as investment contracts, however, they are not securities at all. Tokens sold for use in a functioning network, rather than as investment contracts, fall outside the definition of securities”.
- many more facts..
With the above considered, it truly doesn’t seem likely that XRP will be deemed a security, but only time will tell.
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