• Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse is considering an initial public offering (IPO) of Ripple within the next 12 months.
• The IPO would be a logical consequence of the recent Series C financing round.

It could be the biggest sensational news of the year so far in the crypto-currency space. Asheesh Birla, Ripple’s Senior Vice President of Products has tweeted that Ripple is considering an Initial Public Offering (IPO) within the next 12 months. An IPO of Ripple could be a huge PR move to get more attention in the mainstream media, but the capital could also help Ripple to grow exponentially.

Ripple CEO Garlinghouse considers IPO

Like other big players in the crypto industry, Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple and Asheesh Birla attended this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos. In a two-hour interview with the Wall Street Journal in Davos, Brad Garlinghouse made some interesting statements. Unfortunately there was no live stream to the event. At the time of going to press, there were also no videos of those in attendance.

However, Ripple executives and other attendees who joined Brad Garlinghouse at the event have tweeted some quotes from him. Certainly the most significant statement comes from Asheesh Birla, who tweeted:

“In the next 12 months, you’ll see IPOs in the crypto/blockchain space. We’re not going to be the first and we’re not going to be the last, but I expect us to be on the leading side… it’s a natural evolution for our company.” – @bgarlinghouse at #WEF20

An IPO could be a significant step, as the IPO would allow institutional investors to invest money in Ripple and bet on the value of Ripple as a company. It could also be a huge deal for the XRP token as well, as Ripple would have more capital available to further expand its On Demand Liquidity (ODL) payment solution. In the long term, the XRP price could also inevitably benefit from the IPO, as potential stock investors could also be interested in the XRP token as an investment.

The IPO would also be a logical consequence of the last Series C financing round, as this is the last step before a company goes public. Ripple had closed a US$200 million financing round in mid-December. The Series C was led by the investment company Tetragon and accompanied by other important Ripple partners such as SBI Holdings and the venture capital firm Route 66 Ventures.

Garlinghouse: XRP is superior to Bitcoin as a means of payment

Beyond the news about a possible IPO, Garlinghouse also made other interesting statements. For instance, Garlinghouse stated that he was optimistic about BTC as a store of value. However, Bitcoin is not suitable for payments in his opinion. He added that consumers will not use BTC at Starbucks because the coffee will be cold until the coffee is paid for.

With regard to Bitcoin, Garlinghouse also said that in view of increasing climate change, it is surprising that “1% of global energy consumption is accounted for by Bitcoin mining”. In contrast, performing a validation in the XRP ledger is like running a light bulb, he said.

Garlinghouse also made a pugnacious statement with respect to traditional payment systems, such as SWIFT. Monica Long from the Wall Street Journal tweeted the following statement from Garlinghouse:

“We’re victims of a broken global payments infrastructure… You could remodel the house—which SWIFT is doing—but you won’t fundamentally fix the problem unless you rearchitect the house from the ground up, which Ripple is doing.” – @bgarlinghouseon stage at #WEF20 @WSJHouse

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