Brad Garlinghouse answers tough questions on Ripple (XRP) lawsuit ๐จ This article is 4 years old...
Brad Garlinghouse answers tough questions on Ripple (XRP) lawsuit
2 min read
Updated: Jan. 8, 2021 at 2:36 pm UTC
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The Ripple co-founder allegedly pocketed hundreds of millions from illegal XRP sales, among other allegations.
Garlinghouse speaks up
Ripple co-founder Brad Garlinghouse took to Twitter this morning to explain his side of the story amidst the ongoing US SEC lawsuit against the payments processing firm and issuer of XRP tokens.
To recap, Ripple was hit by the lawsuit in December 2020 and faces charges of token manipulation, unlicensed securities sale, paying to get listed on crypto exchanges, and paying for โfakeโ partnerships with several of its โpartnerโ firms.
In addition, Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen, another co-founder, are said to have sold over $700 million worth of XRP tokens on the open market to illegally profit and bank money for their personal accounts.
Q: Why didnโt Ripple settle with the SEC?
Canโt 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. 2/10
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) January 7, 2021
But Garlinghouse claimed otherwise. โIโm not going to litigate the SECโs unproven allegations on Twitter, and as you can imagine, there are new considerations to what can / should be said publicly after the litigation process starts,โ he said.
He tackled the main question right away, that of why Ripple did not settle with the SECโs filing. โCanโt 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,โ Garlinghouse said.
Garlinghouse claimed to have not paid for any XRP listings on exchanges, despite the allegations. The SEC suggested Ripple paid over $1 million to various exchanges for listing XRP, apart from providing them with other benefits.
However, Garlinghouse claimed:
โRipple has no control over where XRP is listed, who owns it, etc. Itโs open-source and decentralized. Delisting and halting are 2 separate things – most areย halting trading.โ
He added that with eight different government agencies, U.S. market participants were facing โconflicting policiesโ and acting conservatively as a result.
Lawsuit reply, XRP investors, Ripple equity holders
Garlinghouse said that Ripple was preparing its legal action against SEC allegations despite any public comments. โThe legal process can be slow! Things may seem quiet, but there is plenty happening behind the scenes,โ he said.
โTo all asking for updates on the SEC lawsuit: no surprise, the legal process takes time! We may be quiet but we are not idle.โ
Furthermore, on the question of investors still having faith in Ripple, Garlinghouse said that while the company had โrealโ shareholders, it was โdisappointedโ that Tetragon (who owns 1.5% of Ripple) sought to unfairly advantage itself through the SECโs allegations. The latter had, last week, launched its own lawsuit against Rippleโs practices.
Finally, on the question of Ripple paying customers to use XRP, Garlinghouse said that the firm had indeed provided some customers, especially first movers, with incentives to use its on-demand liquidity service.
However, some said Garlinghouse dodged an even bigger question. โDoesnโt address the biggest question: how is morale on the team after they learned about the magnitude of executive sales?,โ said Ryan Selkis, the founder of Messari.
Doesnโt address the biggest question: how is morale on the team after they learned about the magnitude of executive sales?
— Ryan Selkis (@twobitidiot) January 7, 2021
XRP Market Data
At the time of press 2:36 pm UTC on Jan. 8, 2021, XRP is ranked #4 by market cap and the price is down 4.98% over the past 24 hours. XRP has a market capitalization of $14.59 billion with a 24-hour trading volume of $13.74 billion. Learn more about XRP ›
Crypto Market Summary
At the time of press 2:36 pm UTC on Jan. 8, 2021, the total crypto market is valued at at $1.09 trillion with a 24-hour volume of $199.67 billion. Bitcoin dominance is currently at 70.36%. Learn more about the crypto market ›
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Theย XRP Ledgerย is a decentralized cryptographic ledger powered by a network of peer-to-peer servers.
Ripple
Ripple is a US-based technology company which develops the Ripple payment protocol and exchange network using XRP, the digital asset native to the XRP Ledger.
Brad Garlinghouse stands at the forefront of financial technology as the CEO of Ripple.