The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is about to file a lawsuit against Ripple, a fintech company that controls the majority of XRP assets, over an alleged unregistered sale of securities in the form of XRP tokens, Fortune reports, citing Ripple's CEO Brad Garlinghouse.
Garlinghouse criticized the SEC's intention to sue the company for the fact that the regulator may file a lawsuit ahead of the holiday weekend, while the SEC chairman Jay Clayton prepares to step down:
"It is not just Grinch-worthy, it is shocking. It’s an attack on the entire crypto industry. Clayton did this with one foot out the door. Rather shamefully, he has decided to sue Ripple, and leave the legal work to the next chairman."
SEC officials have previously admitted that bitcoin (EXANTE: Bitcoin) and ether (ETH) are not securities, primarily because there is no person or company to control them. In addition, they are released using mining process for diversified regulation. XRP differs from these, as Chris Larsen, Ripple's Co-Founder, and others issued 100 billion XRP in 2012 through Ripple Labs and sold tokens over the following years. Ripple vehemently rejects claims that XRP is a security.
According to Garlinghouse, seeing XRP as a security is like comparing oil to Exxon's stock. He also added the company will stand up for all the crypto market and will not let the SEC bully the entire industry.
In the meantime, the price of XRP token dropped significantly down by almost 19% and is trading at $0.459.
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