Ripple’s $1.3B Lawsuit Likely to End Next Year, CEO Brad Garlinghouse Says

The case between San Francisco-based fintech startup Ripple Labs Inc. and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeing significant progress and will likely be concluded in 2022.

According to a report by CNBC, the legal battle between Ripple and the U.S. SEC is likely to come to an end by next year.

This was confirmed by the CEO of Ripple Labs Inc., Brad Garlinghouse, saying that the company is “seeing pretty good progress despite a slow-moving judicial process.”

He added:

“Clearly we’re seeing good questions asked by the judge. And I think the judge realizes this is not just about Ripple, this will have broader implications.”

The Ripple Vs. SEC Legal Battle

The case between Ripple V SEC case all started late last year when the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple and two of its executives saying that it raised over $1.3 billion through conducting an unregistered securities offering to investors in the U.S. starting 2013.

The financial watchdog also noted that the company’s executives, Larsen and Garlinghouse, also personally participated in unregistered sales of Ripple’s native cryptocurrency, XRP.

Both executives sold approximately $600 million worth of XRP, according to the SEC.

Per the filing, the executives violated registration provisions of the federal securities laws because they did not follow appropriate measures by registering its offering and sales of XRP to investors.

“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,” Stephanie Avakian, Director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division said.

Ripple disputed the claims, saying that U.S. regulators have in the past viewed XRP as a currency instead of security like the SEC claimed.

So far, Ripple has seen significant progress following the lawsuit.

XRP surges to 3-Year High Despite SEC Lawsuit

Despite Ripple’s legal battle, investors with the fear of missing out keep buying XRP, the digital asset reclaimed its spot in the top 5 by market capitalization after breaking the $1 resistance to record a new all time high in the last three years.