Ripple claims SEC lawsuit is an attack on crypto industry

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse responded to SEC lawsuit with a press release indicating that the case is an attack against the entire cryptocurrency industry in the United States. According to Garlinghouse, the lawsuit is based on SEC’s claim that XRP is a stock rather than a currency.

Garlinghouse further indicated in his press release that chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission Jay Clayton is not focused on innovation with the lawsuit they filed against Ripple Labs.

‘Despite what [Clayton] would like the public to think, it’s obvious the SEC is not at all committed to fostering innovation in the digital asset space. With this behavior, the SEC is engaged in an all-out attack on the crypto industry,’ stated Garlinghouse in his statement.

‘Let me be clear: Ripple, Chris and I may be the ones named in the filing, but this is an assault on crypto at large. In this case, XRP is a proxy for every other ‘alt-coin’ in the space. From there, you have a snowball effect; this isn’t good news for any market maker, exchanges like Coinbase, etc.’

SEC filed a $1.3 billion lawsuit against Ripple Labs and a separate lawsuit on the company’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen. SEC claimed Ripple is an unregistered digital asset securities offering.

Director of SEC’s Enforcement Division Stephanie Avakian indicated in a press release that Ripple did not register their offerings.

‘Issuers seeking the benefits of a public offering, including access to retail investors, broad distribution and a secondary trading market, must comply with the federal securities laws that require registration of offerings unless an exemption from registration applies,’ stated Avakian.

‘We allege that Ripple, Larsen, and Garlinghouse failed to register their ongoing offer and sale of billions of XRP to retail investors, which deprived potential purchasers of adequate disclosures about XRP and Ripple’s business and other important long-standing protections that are fundamental to our robust public market system.’

After the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple, exchange sites removed XRP from their list. Coinbase took down XRP from their site on January 19, OKCoin on December 28, 2020, eToro and Binance.US on January 3 and 13, respectively.