Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple Labs, has revealed that the company will consider launching an initial public offering (IPO) after its ongoing case with the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States (SEC) comes to an end.
Ripple to Explore IPO
Garlinghouse told CNBC on Wednesday that Ripple has grown to a stage whereby offering investors an IPO is a possibility. But the CEO noted that this possibility can only be considered after the company resolves its issue with the SEC.
“We want to get certainty and clarity from the United States with the US SEC. I’m hopeful the SEC will not slow that process down more than they already have. We’re already at a point in scale where (an IPO) is a possibility and we’ll look at that once we’re past this lawsuit with the SEC,” he said.
SEC v Ripple Lawsuit Still in Motion
The ongoing legal battle between the SEC and Ripple started in December 2020, and the issue is yet to be resolved after more than a year.
It all began when the US regulator filed a lawsuit against Ripple, alleging that the company sold unregistered securities to local and foreign investors in the form of XRP tokens.
The lawsuit also extends to Ripple’s executives Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen. |The SEC alleged that they unlawfully sold their personal XRP holdings worth a total of $600 million at the time.
Ripple, however, disputes the allegations, saying that U.S. regulators have in the past viewed XRP as a currency instead of securities, as the SEC claimed.
Last month, Garlinghouse revealed that the case has gone “exceedingly well” and that it will likely come to an end this year with Ripple having the upper hand.
