Ripple CEO says its highly likely the crypto company will go public once SEC lawsuit is resolved

Ripple

  • Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said it's highly likely that the company will go public "at some point."
  • He noted that any actions toward going public will need to wait until Ripple resolves its lawsuit with the SEC.
  • The SEC alleges that Ripple participated in an unregistered securities offering. The firm claims its XRP token is a commodity and out of the SEC's purview.
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Brad Garlinghouse hinted at the idea that Ripple Labs, the company behind the crypto token XRP, could go public during a Wednesday talk at the Consensus by CoinDesk 2021 conference.

When asked whether Ripple would become a public company, the Ripple CEO said the likelihood is "very high at some point."

However, he noted that any effort toward going public will need to wait until Ripple resolves its lawsuit with the SEC. The US securities regulator will be the one that approves Ripple's S-1 after all, he said.

On an earnings call last month, one of Ripple's largest outside shareholders said that the company planned to go public after the lawsuit was resolved. The news sent XRP up 14%.

The SEC in December filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs, Garlinghouse, and Christian Larsen, the company's co-founder, executive chairman of its board, and former CEO, alleging that XRP was a $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering. Ripple claims XRP is a commodity and therefore out of the SEC's reach.

The SEC and Commodities Futures Trading Commission have struggled for years to determine which cryptocurrencies are considered commodities and which are considered securities. Clarifying this is one of the goals of the Eliminate Barriers to Innovation Act of 2021. The Act passed the House in April and is now headed to the Senate.

XRP was up 6% and trading at $0.99 on Wednesday afternoon. The token has fallen nearly 50% from its 2021 high amid a broader cryptocurrency sell-off.

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