Ripple Labs is still fighting its case in the court of law against the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States. The case started last year, and it is very likely to keep going on till the next year. One of the Ripple executives who have been sued by the government prosecutors has recently opened up about their take on the whole matter.
Brad Garlinghouse recently attended the DC Fintech Week Conference that took last week and was hosted virtually. Garlinghouse has not refrained from making harsh comments on the SEC in the past many times. He recently took to chance to issue another bold statement. He told the attendees of the conference that SEC had provided Ethereum with a visible business advantage by filing a lawsuit against XRP.
The new statement coming from the top executive Brad Garlinghouse is enough to open another can of worms for his company. He recently accused SEC publically of providing Ethereum with a greater business advantage under the pretext of serving the citizens and investors in the region. It is worth noting that SEC has alleged that XRP is unregistered security.
To counter this argument, defence lawyers filed a petition in the court asking SEC officials why other crypto tokens like Bitcoin and Ethereum are exempt from this classification. The court entertained this request under the Freedom of Information Act and deposed the SEC officials who had made a claim. However, this petition took six months to produce any results.
Case Extension
The troubles of Ripple Labs are far from over. The court has ruled recently that any of the Ripple investors who want to join the case as third-party defenders are barred. To add more trouble to the mix, the SEC has asked for another extension on the case to complete the process of evidence collection until next year. Court has also granted this extension, and SEC lawyers have time until Jan 04, 2020, to present their case.
Brad Garlinghouse has made a bold remark that SEC has strategically timed the lawsuit to provide Ethereum with a greater business advantage. At present, Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world in terms of market capitalization. On the other hand, XRP is pushed back to the 7th rank with its investors in the USA reducing from 70K to 50K as well.