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- Ripple Inc.’s legal team doesn’t plan on settling with the SEC over the lawsuit on XRP.
- Gensler supports innovation and pursuit of the lawsuit would only deter the same.
Ripple Inc.’s legal team doesn’t plan on settling with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on XRP. As Charles Gasparino of Fox Business tweeted Friday:
Ripple’s legal team tell Fox Business they have no plans to settle with SEC over a lawsuit on XRP, confident they can show Gary Gensler in pursuing the case is picking winners and losers in the crypto business to the detriment of innovation.
Since December last year, the SEC vs Ripple case has been running over Ripple’s alleged sale of unregistered securities. CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen were also implicated. Earlier when Garlinghouse was asked why they were yet to settle with the regulator, he said:
Can’t get into specifics, but know we tried — and will continue to try with the new administration — to resolve this in a way so the XRP community can continue innovating, consumers are protected and orderly markets are preserved.
Conflict of interest in Ripple and SEC lawsuit on XRP?
At some point, current SEC Chair Gary Gensler was a crypto professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This post gives Ripple and XRP supporters hope that he will support innovation and eventually act in their favor. These supporters are also confident that there was a conflict of interest with former SEC Chair Jay Clinton.
Under Clinton’s leadership, the commission sued Ripple. Just a few days later, Clinton stepped down from his position, leaving the incoming boss to carry on with the lawsuit. In August, government watchdog Empower Oversight began investigating the circumstances surrounding the lawsuit, Clayton, and senior SEC official William Hinman.
While having taken a cautious approach during service at the SEC, Clinton is now showing great interest in the crypto space. He now makes part of the board in two different crypto firms namely: One River Asset Management and crypto custodian Fireblocks.
“I’m very bullish on the ability of blockchain and other technologies to eliminate frictions in the system,” Clinton says.
Light at the end of the tunnel?
Last week, Gensler expressed great positivism in innovation. During the Senate Banking Committee hearing, pro-Bitcoin Senator Cynthia Lummis asked Gensler, “Do you support responsible innovation?” Without hesitation, he replied:
Oh my gosh, yes. I mean it’s brought us these lights in the room. It’s brought us this ability to have a hybrid hearing with your fellow members. I mean innovation is what supports access, economic activity, and give so much of us better opportunities in life.
Even more, Satoshi Nakamoto’s innovation is real, as Gensler asserts. “His innovation spurred the development of crypto-assets and the underlying blockchain technology.” Moreover, “it has been and could continue to be a catalyst for change in the fields of finance and money,” he added.
What remains now for Ripple and XRP supporters is watchful waiting, hoping the lawsuit ends soon and ends well, for them.
