Faced with losses after the Securities and Exchange Commission declared XRP as a security, the XRP community petitioned the US government to declare it a currency.
We are people ...
December 29 on the website of the US White House petition appeared regarding the fate of Ripple Labs' XRP token. The appeal asked the government to back the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) decision that XRP is the currency.
At the time of publication of this report, the petition has been signed by about 10 people. To move forward, the petition needs to be signed by 000 people.
Supporters filed a petition in response to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) action on December 23. The SEC has accused Ripple Labs executives of selling unregistered securities (namely XRP). According to the charges, such sales amounted to $ 1,3 billion.
XRP charges
The current allegations that current CEO Christian Larsen and former CEO Brad Garlinghouse created Ripple to sell XRP are not just allegations. The SEC is also charging the two with an unregistered XRP sale totaling about $600 million.
Garlinghouse announced the upcoming allegations on December 22 and vigorously defended his view that XRP is under attack for non-root reasons. He pointed out that Ripple has been in the market for eight years. In addition, he doubted the timing and motivation of the move. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which took action in the last days of Trump's rule, left the Biden administration with a bag of chaos.
Local storm or global event?
The SEC's actions shocked the XRP community despite Garlinghouse's warning. US exchanges have begun to promptly remove or suspend the use of XRP on their trading platforms. Not all suspensions are effective immediately. Coinbase, for example, will suspend trading on January 19. Bitstamp will stop trading and deposits on January 8th.
Outside the US, XRP holders continue to live. On December 31, Australian exchange BTC Markets tweeted that they will continue to offer tokens for now.
For our #XRP clients, we are monitoring events in the US regarding the SEC. However, we have no plans to delist XRP at this time @Rippl to
- BTC Markets (@BTCMarkets) December 30, 2020
The status quo at the moment
If they agree, the next move for Ripple, Garlinghouse and Larsen will take place on February 15th. The District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) is formally inviting the parties to refer the case to Magistrates' Court. However, if they refuse, SDNY will hold a pre-trial conference call on February 22nd.
December 29 Ripple Labs опубликовала on its website for a comment on developments. In it, the team notes that most of its business is located outside the United States. They also noted that XRP is legally traded outside the US. In addition, there is “legal clarity” regarding XRP in the UK, Japan, Singapore and Switzerland.
The Ripple team also looks forward to working with the new SEC team. As they point out, many of the high-ranking SEC officials have recently left. This includes the chairman, department directors, the SEC's chief economist and its general counsel.