SEC vs. Ripple: Pretrial Set for February; Company relocating to Japan

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Ripple Garlinghouse
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse

The pretrial of the lawsuit against Ripple by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is set for Feb. 22, 2021, according to a court document in the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York. 

The counsel representing both parties will lead the telephone pretrial concerns ahead of the preliminary hearing, to do “(1) a brief description of the case, including the factual and legal basis for the claim(s) and defense(s), (2) any contemplated motions and (3) the prospect for settlement.”

Earlier this month, the SEC sued Ripple for allegedly violating federal securities laws by conducting an unregistered initial coin offering (ICO). The regulator alleged that the cryptocurrency company, ts co-founder Christian Larsen, and CEO Bradley Garlinghouse raised more than $1.38 billion by illegally selling over 14.6 billion units of XRP. The SEC considers XRP as “digital asset security.”

Coinbase, the popular cryptocurrency exchange platform reacted to the lawsuit by limiting the XRP trading and will suspend it for good on January 19, 2021. This has resulted in a 65% decrease in the XRP price.

A majority  of Ripple customers are based overseas

Meanwhile, Ripple CEO Garlinghouse stated that only 5% of the company’s clients are located in the United States. The company is willing to relocate soon as a response to the lawsuit by the SEC.