Ripple has been considering going public for quite some time now. Its ongoing lawsuit against the US SEC has, however, been holding back the blockchain payment firm.
In what is the latest development, the firm’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse assured that Ripple would explore the possibility of an initial public offering as soon as its lawsuit with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission winds up.
Talking to CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Garlinghouse said,
“But you know, we certainly are at a point in the scale, where that is a possibility. And we’ll look at that once we’re past this lawsuit with the SEC.”
The Ripple-SEC lawsuit tangent
Ripple, as such, uses XRP to expedite cross-border payments. In the said process, fiat is converted to XRP to reduce the cost and increase the transaction speed, and then re-converted back to fiat.
Now, per the SEC, the payments firm and its execs had got into illegal securities offering via XRP sales. The SEC has been contending that XRP is a security, while the defendants have been trying to prove otherwise.
Elaborating on the essence of clarity, the exec said,
“I think we want to get certainty and clarity in the United States with the U.S. SEC. You know, I’m hopeful that the SEC will not slow that process down any more than they already have.”
The lawsuit, on its part, took a new turn a few hours back when the court granted the SEC’s motion for an extension of time to file an opposition to the amici’s request to take part in the expert challenge.
The SEC’s objection is due by 7 June and any further response to the said objection would fall due by 10 June. As highlighted recently, the same is likely to limit the presence of XRP holders in the case.
The (un)anticipated twist
Quite recently, Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terrett brought to light that the independent expert that the SEC had retained to examine the perspective of a reasonable XRP buyer is currently working with a consulting firm that managed to bag a $4.1 million government contract a couple of years back.
The contract, per Terrett, was funded by the SEC. Stamping the seal of confirmation, prominent attorney Jeremy Hogan said,
“Consider that FACT CHECKED.”
Per many from the community seems to be more like an investment contract. People have, in fact, also started equating the SEC to a reverse pyramid scheme. One particular user took Twitter to state,
“The SEC is a reverse pyramid scheme. They sue companies to extract a settlement payment, then use that money to fund lawsuits against other companies, thereby keeping the scam going & growing. Worse is that our tax $$ pay SEC lawyers; like paying someone to punch you in the face.”
So now with the unveiling of the aforementioned scoop, it’d be interesting to see if the pendulum re-swings back in Ripple’s favor or not.