Sagar Sarbhai, Head of Government and Regulatory Relations, APAC & Middle East, at Ripple talked during an interview about Ripple, XRP and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Ripple Educates the SEC About XRP
One of the main topics surrounding Ripple was related to the SEC and how it considers the cryptocurrency XRP. Ripple says that XRP is not a security and that it is not related to the company.
Mr. Sarbhai explained that Ripple has been engaging with the SEC in order for the agency to learn about XRP. And indeed, he said that XRP is not a security. He mentioned that investors that buy XRP will not receive a stake in Ripple for doing so. They would also not receive dividends from the company.
Additionally, he said that XRP could continue to exist even if Ripple disappears. However, XRP and Ripple are connected. One of the most awaited products that is going to be released by Ripple, xRapid, uses XRP. In addition to it, XRP has an open source ledger that is available for everyone to use.
There are some analysts that say that Ripple owns most of the XRP in the market. But according to Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple’s CEO, they only own 7% of the public blockchain.
After it, Sarbhai commented about how regulatory agencies around the world consider XRP. One of the examples he gave was Thailand. The country has decided to regulate cryptocurrencies by creating a new asset class called ‘digital assets.’ After it, Thailand allowed XRP and other cryptocurrencies to be legally traded in the market.
Something similar happened in Australia and the Philippines. XRP has been categorized as a commodity or as a cryptocurrency. In Switzerland, authorities decided to make clear distinctions between different digital assets.
The SEC could determine the future of XRP all over the world. If it considers it a security, the situation could be devastating. However, things could look bright if the regulatory agency decides to categorize it a different way.
At the moment, XRP is being traded around $0.59 dollars after a massive spike and correction in the last 24 hours. It is currently the third most valuable virtual currency, though for some time yesterday it was ahead of Ethereum in total market capitalization.
Carlos is an international relations’ analyst specializing in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Since 2017, Carlos has written extensively for UseTheBitcoin and other leading cryptocurrency sites; with over 2,000 articles published.
