The SEC Attack on XRP is an Attack on All of Crypto

In this modern, innovative, and unpredictable era, virtual currency is evolving with the speed of light.

The phenomenal increment is faced by crypto-trading especially during the pandemic of COVID-19. Undoubtedly there has been an abnormal rise in the investment of cryptocurrency by a massive amount of people and numerous businesses.

COVID-19 was the time when more than 75% of the world’s population is staying indoor because of the restrictions imposed by the government to dodge COVID-19.

Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are hitting $17000 for the first time ever because a wide range of organizations are facing a downfall in their businesses and are prone to investment in cryptocurrency. 

Considering a rising tide of cryptocurrencies, XRP was one of the most well-known cryptocurrency during the evolution. Ripple is known for digital payment protocols, however, it is also known for its cryptocurrency and especially for XRP.

According to cryptocurrency researcher Messari, XRP faced massive upward price movement in November due to retail investors’ interests in the spark airdrop on 12th December 2020. 

However, XRP has been embroiled in many controversies recently. According to SEC, Ripple has violated federal security laws by selling cryptocurrency XRP to retail customers, which has raised up to $1.3 billion dollars over the past 7 years. 

“ Because of the SEC lawsuit against Ripple, XRP has dropped up to 60% and dropped below its pre-airdrop frenzy level in early November by hitting $0.21 recently. “

Ripple’s XRP is facing a huge gain since 2017, is one of the biggest cryptocurrency other than bitcoin. XRP is the best and biggest digital asset to perform efficient transactions and payments globally.

Ripple lab explains why it is used for escrow arrangements.  The company has clearly demonstrated an enormous track record of investing in and supporting the XRP ecosystem and also claims that for almost five years it has been a responsible manciple of XRP supply. 

XRP offers accurate and efficient options to the financial infrastructure for sourcing liquidity on demand. XRP is a native digital asset that is manufactured for payments on XRP-Ledger, a permissionless, opensource, and decentralized blockchain technology that is efficient enough to perform transactions within 3 to 5 seconds with a high rate of accuracy and precision. 

XRP is cost-effective, accurate, efficient, and more scalable as compared to other digital assets. XRP along with the XRP ledger is focusing on the empowerment of innovative technological advancements to transform global payments and to help unleash new utility of XRP. Moreover, third-parties are also acquiring XRP related manifestations. 

Ripple’s XRP network is a limited network that possesses only 150+ validators. The reason for the network to be limited is because of the company’s emphasis on maintenance of a unique node list and controls every node 100% that is added to the ledger.  

“ The United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a case on 22nd December 2020 against Ripple’s cryptocurrency XRP and claims that XRP is illegally marketed by Ripple to retail customers in unregistered security offerings.“

According to the complaint, the company’s current CEO Bradley Garlinghouse and Ripple’s co-founder, chairman, and former CEO Christian Larsen raised the business’s capital through the illicit sale of XRP in unregistered security offerings. SEC claims that the failure of registration of XRP sales leads to the violation of federal security law. 

Brad Garlinghouse tweeted that  Ripple, as a proud US-based company, abides by and supports all the critical laws under the US government and SEC. He also tweeted that to make matters worse, some US regulators have already made decisions that actively favor Chinese technologies OVER US companies. Legislation like the DCEA can bring US companies to equal footing. 

Due to chaos between the US regulatory environment and Ripple, the $10 billion financial technology well-known for XRP is considering relocating its headquarters overseas to London which, I think, is the best step taken by the company to aggressively defend itself. 

“ What you see in the U.K. is a clear taxonomy, and the U.K.’s FCA took a leadership role in characterizing how we should think about these different assets and their use cases”  - Garlinghouse

In addition to the United Kingdom, Garlinghouse also said that Singapore, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland are also under consideration for moving Ripple’s headquarter abroad. No matter where the headquarters reside, no matter what twists and turns are coming in the future, it is still business as usual. The company should focus on providing the same user experience that is expected from Ripple, also no matter how crucial the circumstances get, the company should stand by its customers, stakeholders, investors, and employees. 

Although companies are arming themselves with enhanced security features, it also is mandatory for customers to stay ahead of the unknown and acquire precautions on their own before trusting any platform to deter fraud, illicit activities, and data breaches. Customers should acknowledge how cryptocurrency scams work and how to dodge them.  

Anatomy can be devastated in the wrong hands. Background checks should be performed on people launching coins by the institutes approving ICO. 

KYC and AML compliance can also deter fraudulent activities and cyber-attacks. 

Investors should be realistic during the evaluation of ICO. investors should acquire safety precautions and should perform their due diligence to ensure that the coins are safe and secure. 

In my opinion, SEC has painted a wrong picture against Ripple’s cryptocurrency XRP. As technology, ripple is brilliant! It is a platform that supports the financial transactions of all nature, fiat, and crypto. XRP is the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency with the involvement of billions of dollars of frictionless trading every single day. 

As a matter of legislation, the complaint is wrong. This is not the first time ever that the United States SEC has gone beyond its legal authorities. Other major departments of the United States government such as the Treasury Department’s FinCen and the Justice Department have already declared and accepted XRP as virtual currency.  SEC has engaged itself in an all-out attack on cryptocurrency which is frustrating, to be honest. Clearly, SEC is not fostering innovations in digital assets.