Crypto payments firm Ripple was charged by the SEC in late December for offering unregistered securities worth about $1.3 billion. The action was reciprocated by the US-based Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange, which removed trading of its native currency XRP.
XRP is ranked seventh largest in the world with respect to market value. Ripple stated the SEC action has not led to fallout in its business in the Asia Pacific. However, the activities in the US were hindered.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse confirmed even though the lawsuit impacted activity in the US, it had no fallout in the Asia Pacific. The growth is continued in the region as the markets are equipped with regulatory clarity. It is believed no cryptocurrency exchanges outside the US have halted the trading of XRP.
Currently, XRP is traded on more than 200 cryptocurrency exchanges across the world and only four exchanges based in the US halted the trading.
SEC alleged that Garlinghouse and one other executive of the firm to have gained personally about $600 million which were from the unregistered offering.
Meanwhile, financial regulators across the world are working on the regulatory framework for the segment and their outcomes may determine whether cryptocurrencies could be placed into mainstream assets. If not, the cryptos may simply remain as niche products. The US regulators count it as a commodity. Other countries are awaited to define the product.
After the lawsuit was brought by the SEC, the firm signed over a dozen contracts with banks in various countries. It is blamingthatthe US is lacking regulatory clarity.
The XRP liquidity is more outside the US and it is growing further in Asia, particularly in Japan.
Cryptocurrency is still in its infancy. More opportunities are awaited. Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency in the world and it was released in 2009. Thousands of varieties followed the footsteps of Bitcoin and these are called altcoins. A couple of examples of altcoins include ether, dogecoin and litecoin.