Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse spoke on a news channel on how Ripple’s ultimate aim was to take over SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) and why calling it as the next Bitcoin would be demeaning it. He explained that in this age of the internet, the fastest way to send your money from Singapore to New York would be to take a long haul flight! Essentially we are nowhere near to the levels of money transmission where we should be and Ripple is going to fill that gap if accepted by everyone.
The company has been doing well for itself with deals across banks for transmission on its blockchain. However, Gemini and Coinbase, two of the biggest U.S cryptocurrency exchanges have not been too keen to list Ripple. Rumour has it that one Ripple executive tried to bribe out a listing to executives of both of the exchanges by offering $1 million cash. Gemini’s Winklevoss twins’ received a similar offer with an addition to pay rebates and associated costs.
Ripple had apparently also offered Coinbase more than $100 million worth of the cryptocurrency to let it appreciate post listing gains and buy back the loan in even USD. Ripple denied all charges and reiterated its commitment.
Regardless, Ripple has always been transparent about our focus on building and growing a strong XRP ecosystem. We want XRP to be the most liquid digital asset possible to enable faster, cheaper global payments.
One of the earlier setbacks Ripple might face is the issue of its centralized nature. The network is controlled by a single company, even though it might call the technology “decentralized”. This will classify Ripple as-as “security” under U.S laws and will become a hot potato for cryptocurrency exchanges as it will be engulfed by stricture rules and regulations. Thus, Ripple has its hands –full right now clarifying that it is not a “security”. As per U.S laws, and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), cryptocurrencies fall under general security laws. SEC has time and again asked these companies to clarify the usage and purpose of the new coins to ensure the right category.
However, as Ripple comes out of the hot waters of the bribery scandal, one of its senior executives, Chief Marketing Officer, Cory Johnson stated that –
“We absolutely are not a security. We don’t’ meet the standards for what a security is based on the history of court law”.
Ripple ‘s eagerness is not shared by Coinbase which is consistently denying any listing in near future. The San-Francisco based Ripple owns 60 billion of the 100 billion of XRP tokens released. The price of the tokens went up after rumors of the listing but also quickly went down in denial by Coinbase.
Coinbase wishes to keep its books clean and not be seen at mixing with a token which is defined loosely and might be classified as a “security” in future by the SEC. The exchange has strived to maintain a complaint and legal face of its business and steering clear of controversies.