The move is the latest fallout from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against Ripple, its executive chairman Chris Larsen, and Garlinghouse. The suit says that the $1.3 billion in XRP sales made by Ripple over the past eight years, with $600 million made by the two executives, were illegal sales of securities.
Outside the U.S., Ripple has “been able to continue to grow the business in Asia and Japan because we’ve had regulatory clarity in those markets,” Garlinghouse added. “We’re seeing the activity of XRP liquidity has grown outside the United States and continue to grow in Asia, certainly in Japan.”
In it’s Q4 and full year financial results released today MoneyGram International revealed that it has suspended trading in XRP due to uncertainty over the Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit. The agency has said XRP is an unregistered security illegally sold by Ripple over the past eight years.
While Ripple has offered an aggressive response, promising to fight the enforcement action it calls “an assault on the entire American cryptocurrency industry and an assault on American innovation”—companies working with Ripple and XRP have had very different responses.
