Ripple’s tussle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] has left the entire market worried about the future cryptocurrency, XRP which saw a severe price dump following the news. Also, the cryptocurrency exchanges that had previously listed the token and gave investors access to the token for the past several years were equally concerned about the whole affair. While a few exchanges took a more conservative approach and delisted the asset others have gone on to either halt or delist XRP till the matter is resolved.
Ray Of Hope For XRP?
In the latest development, the XRP ledger wallet and gateway called GateHub will continue listing the token. According to its official blog post, the platform asserted that it would not remove the crypto-asset until the SEC’s complaint against Ripple is adjudicated and a final decision entered that the token is properly classified as a “security,” or until GateHub receives a cease-and-desist notice from the regulators.
The lack of clarity with regards to the treatment of cryptocurrencies under US securities laws has been a major cause of concern for the market players. On that note, GateHub emphasized that the open-sourced XRP Ledger is a “distributed” blockchain technology. Hence even if Ripple Labs happens to shut its shop tomorrow, the ledger and the recording of XRP transactions on it would continue to exist through the consensus process. The announcement further read,
“If Ripple and/or its senior executives defrauded individual investors, they should be subject to appropriate enforcement actions, and be forced to disgorge any ill-gotten gains. But that is a far cry from an action by the SEC classifying XRP as a “security,” with potentially catastrophic consequences for individual investors, who did nothing wrong.”
The SEC had sued Ripple earlier this month on allegations it has been selling the token as unregistered security for more than seven years. Unlike GateHub, not many have been kind to the crypto. Binance US, for instance, has been more strict with its approach. The U.S. affiliate of the world’s top crypto exchange by volume announced the delisting of XRP from the platform on the 13th of January.
Previously, Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse had blasted the lawsuit, claiming that it affected “countless innocent XRP retail holders with no connection to the blockchain company. Commenting on the several platforms delisting XRP, Garlinghouse had asserted that the company had “no control” over where the token is listed since “It’s open-source and decentralized”.