Ceo of Ripple Brad Garlinghouse took to Twitter on December 22 to announce a year between the SEC filing a lawsuit against Ripple, Chris Larsen, and himself when the regulator declared that XRP, a publicly-traded cryptocurrency, should have been registered as a security. The CEO tweeted: Garlinghouse emphasized in his thread that what he stated before remains true today: this is an attack on crypto in the United States, not just Ripple. Some he noted have accepted the SEC’s charges at face value and assumed it was a one-time occurrence, but that is no longer the case.
2021 XRP’s best-ever year
Nevertheless, despite the current legal battle, Garlinghouse added the year 2021 has been hailed as a breakthrough year for the cryptocurrency industry. In particular, the CEO revealed that 2021 has been XRPs strongest ever year, with RippleNet experiencing its best year to date with enormous growth globally. Notably, On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) is now accessible to over 20 countries worldwide for their payment needs. He also highlighted that transactions via RippleNet have more than doubled since the third quarter of 2020. ODL transactions have increased by 130 % quarter over quarter, and ODL transactions accounted for 25% of total dollar volume throughout the network in the third quarter. Finally, while XRP’s ODL flows in the United States have been mostly suspended due to regulatory ambiguity, worldwide ODL volume has continued to increase, with volume increasing by more than 25 times since the third quarter of last year. On the matter, Garlinhouse declared:
Crypto is the “Wild West”
Elsewhere, on the SEC calling cryptocurrency the “Wild West,” he labeled it a “farce” since most crypto firms comply with financial regulations worldwide. Furthermore, he argued regulators shouldn’t penalize businesses for requesting clarification and consistency in the application of regulations. Finally, it was stated that the Chairman of SEC Gary Gensler wants to broaden the organization’s scope, adopting a stridently anti-crypto tone, according to the Garlinghouse. Although many American firms worked together to develop Web2, he questioned whether Web3 would be the same with some companies already relocating outside of the United States.
