Ripple Labs Inc. could be a public company and listed on the open markets of the United States, according to a member of its board of directors.
Yoshitaka Kitao, CEO of SBI Holdings , a Japanese financial services giant and part owner of Ripple Labs Inc., claimed during a call to report on its tax performance that the company behind the cryptocurrency XRP could be publicly listed on the stock exchange. . This would only be after overcoming the lawsuit of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it faces.
Kitao claimed that Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larse, executives at Ripple Labs Inc., want this to happen. In January 2020, Garlinghouse suggested that Ripple would eventually go public through an Initial Public Offering (IPO).
Also, as CriptoNoticias reported on April 2, Garlinghouse affirmed that Ripple could continue as a company even without its cryptocurrency . This could bring substantial changes in the structure of the company, its purpose and services in the future, but above all, it is a new clue that points to the public launch of the company.
In this way, Ripple shares could be traded by both institutional investors and authorized individuals in the US markets. This maneuver would possibly be in compliance with US financial legal regulations , which the SEC argues was not the case when they distributed the cryptocurrency since its founding in 2012.
Kitao also claimed that the R3 consortium, which is another of Ripple Labs Inc.’s majority partners, was looking to make a public offering on the US stock markets.
Another notorious company in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, Coinbase , recently began trading on the Nasdaq markets under the ticker COIN, but Ripple still won’t do so until ridding itself of the lawsuit the SEC introduced last December.
Ripple Labs Inc. breaks new ground away from the SEC
In an interview with Fox News on April 27, Garlinghouse stated that the SEC has a double standard for evaluating the nature of XRP , and reproached that this US government body has not created precise legislation regarding cryptocurrencies after passing close to more. 10 years since they broke into the world of finance.
SBI Holdings owns 10% of Ripple Labs Inc., being one of its majority partners. In 2016 they both launched the SBI Ripple Asia consortium to foster the adoption of XRP in this region. In addition, they created an application called Money Tap in which Japanese banks participate.
Ripple takes advantage of court case
As reported by CriptoNoticias , despite joint strategies between Ripple Labs Inc. and SBI Holdings, the SEC’s lawsuit caused several exchanges to withdraw XRP from their markets.
More recently, the case had a setback in Ripple’s favor, as the judge rejected the SEC’s motion to reveal the personal financial data of Ripple executives .
Likewise, a class action lawsuit was recently filed on behalf of 6,000 XRP investors, who request to dismiss the lawsuit for the damages it has caused to the industry that markets this cryptocurrency. The SEC has until Monday, May 3, to respond if it has arguments against this accusation.