Embattled Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, has finally declared the lone condition upon which Ripple might seek a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Speaking to Fox Business yesterday, the 50-year-old former Yahoo employee was quick to point out that the company, Ripple Labs, only demands an “absolute certainty” about how the SEC defines its existence, its limit, and the scope of its use. Brad was quoted as saying:
“If the SEC wants crypto industries to thrive, they need to provide clarity.”
Following the official court hearings which started ten months ago, Garlinghouse has constantly criticized the SEC for what he believes is a targeted and biased attack by the government body. Constantly citing Ethereum, which started off by issuing an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), Brad believes Ripple deserves to be let go since it did not offer what can be technically known as an ICO as did ETH. As a matter of clarity, Brad wants the SEC to place Ripple in the same category it places ETH.
At the present stage, Ripple suffered a dark cloud defeat with a silver lining order at the latest round of a legal bout in court. The company is looking to come back stronger following the latest discovery relating to Hinman’s deposition. After suffering over 70% value loss, Ripple had long sought to win its case sooner by basing its argument on the 2018 statement: “Ethereum is not a security” made by the former SEC finance chief, William Hinman, to which the SEC now classifies it as barely a statement of personal opinion.
With the new discovery, there is now email evidence of the SEC referring to Hinman’s statement as a guide to third parties seeking clarity on their status. If confirmed by the court, this brings a twist to the case, boxing SEC to the corner of non-clarity and confusion long set by Ripple.
The SEC had also argued that Ethereum cannot be compared to XRP because “it is a fully built network” unlike XRP. But with the latest Ethereum London Harfork upgrade, Ripple may now counter that argument with a now-evidential claim that both networks are still a ‘work-in-progress’ and deserve equal treatment.
Brad Garlinghouse has seen through the SEC’s cracks and believes Ripple can win the case but he wants public regulatory clarity on the SEC’s stand to prevent other cryptocurrencies from being targeted in the future. The only regrettable thing is the time, value and progress lost and so it seeks to end it all sooner.
