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Ripple CEO requests 'guidance and clarity' from Congress 'as soon as possible.'
The CEO of Ripple discusses the company's'record year,' despite the SEC's 'headwinds.'
Ripple Labs has been embroiled in a lawsuit with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for nearly a year.
While the case has sparked a broader discussion about the country's securities laws and how they apply to digital assets, the company has undoubtedly lost a lot of business during this time.
In fact, when the SEC first filed the lawsuit, many cryptocurrency exchanges quickly delisted XRP.
Despite these challenges, Ripple has had a successful year, according to CEO Brad Garlinghouse.
Surprisingly, the majority of this has been accomplished without the assistance of the US market. Speaking at the DC Fintech Week Virtual Conference on October 21, the CEO emphasized various parameters in the company's third-quarter statistics to emphasize the point.
Concerning RippleNet, the company's primary source of revenue because it handles transaction-related operations, Garlinghouse stated,
“The primary metric of success is transactions. Despite the headwinds from the SEC we have had a record year on a ton of different dimensions.”
Garlinghouse also revealed that Ripple's on-demand liquidity service, which uses XRP to shuttle liquidity for financial institutions, has grown by 130 percent year over year. Furthermore, Ripple grew by 33% in the most recent quarter.
The SEC argued in its most recent court filings that, like Ripple, the price of XRP has continued to rise despite the ongoing lawsuit. The SEC was attempting to dismiss Ripple's claims that the case had a negative impact on the company's revenues and market position through these statements.
Noting that the majority of this growth has come from business conducted outside of the United States, the CEO stated,
“In the United States we have signed exactly zero new customers and we’ve lost customers because they’re like hey look until the United States regulatory framework is clear we need to lean out.”
With no end in sight to the lawsuit, it appears that Ripple's future may also be outside of the United States. In fact, the company is actively working to broaden its customer base in that direction.
During the interview, Garlinghouse also revealed that Ripple had a record Q3 in terms of hiring, with the company hiring 75 new employees, the majority of whom were non-U.S. citizens. "We will continue to hire more outside of the United States," he added.
It's worth noting, however, that the executive openly avoided questions about the company's future plans. Nonetheless, he mentioned some technological applications that may be pursued in the near future.
“There’s also a kind of corporate treasury use case and a lot of large multinationals, even small businesses that export. There are use cases there that I think are interesting and certainly, some stuff that Ripple’s thinking about”
It is no secret that the blockchain company has formed a slew of alliances with foreign entities in order to provide them with digital asset payment solutions. Earlier this month, UAE-based foreign exchange Al Ansari expanded its partnership with Ripple to deliver cross-border payments using RippleNet for same-day remittance transactions.
Ripple has also recently joined the Digital Pound Foundation. This effort is aimed at establishing the CBDC in the United Kingdom.
