The final quarter of 2020 saw the launch of a precedent-setting lawsuit by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission against Ripple Labs, CEO Bradley Garlinghouse and co-founder Christian A. Larsen. The allegation: raising north of $1 billion in 2013 through the unregistered sale of a purported security, XRP (XRP).
The implications of Ripple’s bold choice to challenge the lawsuit in court radiate far beyond the company. The judgment could become the Rosetta Stone (NYSE:RST) for determining whether other cryptocurrencies are deemed securities. A Ripple victory could fuel a new era of acceptance, investment and confidence in digital assets.
Hamilton Keats is CEO and co-founder of Krayon Digital, a provider of MPC-based digital asset wallets. Prior to building Web3 infrastructure with Krayon, Hamilton co-founded Platform One, a London-based wealth management platform, and worked at HSBC and DVB Bank. He holds a B.Sc. in physics from the Imperial College London.