Garlinghouse Says Ripple Prepared To Leave U.S.
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June 26, 2022 11:13 am
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Ripple Labs’ battle against the S.E.C. continues to rage, with this week’s volleys hinting at a potential exodus of Ripple Labs from the U.S…
Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple Labs’ C.E.O., told Axios in a recent interview that Ripple Labs is fully prepared to leave the U.S. should they lose their embittered battle with the S.E.C.
The crypto firm recently won a major victory against the regulatory agency when the court forced the S.E.C. to produce the redactions in the infamous 2018 Hinman speech.
Legal counsel for Ripple Labs believes the speech to be at the center of the S.E.C.’s conflict of interest, showcasing a preferential treatment for other cryptocurrencies—namely Ethereum, as not falling under the header of a ‘security’.
The S.E.C. has never provided a clear rationale for why they believe Ripple Labs violated securities law through the issuance of the XRP ledger’s native token: XRP.
As early as 2020, Brad Garlinghouse threatened a speedy exodus for Ripple Labs if they lost the now infamous and lengthy legal battle against the S.E.C., and his recent comments hint that Ripple is moving in an international direction.
Indeed, just this week Ripple announced it is seeking 50-100 engineers for its Canadian facility.
Ripple’s legal trouble with the S.E.C. shows no sign of ending any time soon, as the S.E.C. continues to use what Garlinghouse, attorney John Deaton, and Ripple’s legal team have all referred to as shameless stalling tactics.
We continue to see estimated dates of resolution for the lawsuit moved back, with some legal pundits saying that we may see an end to the case sometime this summer or potentially November 2022.
Both Garlinghouse and Ripple Labs continue to hint and showcase the crypto firm’s move in a more international direction:
“As we all know, talent isn’t centralized – great talent can be found anywhere globally!” –@bgarlinghouse welcomed everyone to the Ripple Effect event here in Toronto, and shared his excitement for opening the new Toronto Engineering Hub! pic.twitter.com/wbYWJf3TtX
— Ripple (@Ripple) June 24, 2022
Ripple is hiring for hundreds of roles around the globe – both in person and remote. Fair warning – we have a “no assholes” policy here. If that’s the kind of culture you’re looking for, apply here https://t.co/49kPgUOMpR https://t.co/IZl4wskYFp
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) June 16, 2022
Zy Crypto offered up this quote from Garlinghouse:
Speaking to Axios media house at the Collision conference in Toronto, Garlinghouse said his company could relocate away from the U.S. if the XRP lawsuit is lost. “It’s not that we could, we will,” the chief executive officer asserted.
Ripple CEO: 'More And More Talent and Investment Leaving U.S. Because of Not Clearer Crypto Laws' https://t.co/qVZwZ83siV
— Michael (@val5linx) April 17, 2022
🇨🇦Oh (hey) Canada! We’re opening our first Canadian office – a key engineering hub – in Toronto!
We're looking to hire 50 new employees in the area, eventually expanding to 100s of technical positions.
Check out our open roles: https://t.co/aHXO5QhG2Q
🍁 https://t.co/vm34Bz1lmD— Ripple (@Ripple) June 22, 2022
Fortune reports that Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen issued a similar sentiment in 2020:
Larsen made the comment about Ripple relocating during a virtual interview with Fortune at the LA Blockchain Summit.
He added that nearly every other country offers a more favorable regulatory climate for crypto than the U.S., but named the U.K. and Singapore as the most likely destinations if Ripple leaves the U.S.
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