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- Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse speaks on speculations and says the company has not abandoned the project.
- This appears to be in line with a statement made by a pro-XRP lawyer in 2023 that it is impractical for Ripple to abandon XRP.
Lately, the commitment of Ripple Labs to secure and transform the XRP ecosystem has seriously been in doubt with a section of the crypto community suspecting that the project has been abandoned. A quick research by CNF discloses that a 2021 statement by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse in an interview with CNN bred this thought. During the interview, Garlinghouse hinted that abandoning XRP for alternatives could be part of its contingency plans in the United States following reports that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was suing Ripple for unregistered XRP sales.
That certainly could be part of the solution. I think there is a certain strangeness that the SEC has kind of picked winners here: it said that Bitcoin is not a security, it said that Ether is not a security, but really everything else, I think, is kind of at risk. Particularly, given what they have done in the lawsuit against Ripple. But, you know, we could do that.
Currently, Ripple’s decision to launch a stablecoin later this year seems to have compounded the speculation. To a section of the XRP community, the blockchain company has chosen stablecoin over XRP for international payments. According to an unconfirmed report, the stablecoin which would debut on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum would enable clients based in the US to facilitate cross-border settlement via an On-Demand Liquidity solution (Ripple Payments).
Ripple CEO Dismisses Speculation
Another reason for this speculation stems from the exclusion of XRP from Ripple’s Liquidity Hub. Prior to the launch, Ripple disclosed that the platform would support XRP and other assets including Bitcoin, and Ethereum. However, it cited regulatory concerns for its exclusion of the asset from the list.
An XRP enthusiast reacted:
And they said XRP wasn’t included because of legal BS… Well now it’s the only one with legal clarity and they still haven’t added it to the liquidity hub.
Responding to the ongoing speculations at the XRP Las Vegas 2024 event, Garlinghouse re-emphasized that the company is steadfast in its commitment to the coin. The Ripple CEO also stated that anyone who thinks the company “is not 100% behind XRP is just missing it.”
🚨HUGE! RIPPLE CEO CONFIRMS “ 100% COMMITMENT TO $XRP ” 🚨📈
“Anyone Who Thinks @Ripple Is Not 100% Behind $XRP Is Just Missing. They’ve Lost The Plot !” – @bgarlinghouse
Do You Agree Ripple is Behind #XRP 100% or Are You Concerned About The Launch of A “Ripple Stablecoin” On… pic.twitter.com/JsPnZpmx9M
— Good Morning Crypto (@AbsGMCrypto) May 6, 2024
Interestingly, this is in line with a 2023 expression by Pro-XRP lawyer John Deaton, claiming that Ripple is committed, and would not abandon the project. To support his statement, Deaton traced the history of the project’s valuation. After that, he referred to the ownership of a substantial amount of XRP by the company, stating that it would be impractical for the company to abandon XRP.
Ripple’s pre-IPO shares clearly trade at a valuation significantly less than $15B. Owning 48B-50B #XRP make it insane to abandon #XRP. If #XRP reaches $2, Ripple has an asset valued at $100B. You get the picture.
At press time, XRP was trading at $0.52 after declining by 2.6% in the last 24 hours and 13% in the last 30 days.
