Ripple Says no Trouble in Asia Despite SEC Lawsuit

Despite being pursued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Ripple says it has not encountered any unfavorable situations in the Asia Pacific region, according to a report published March 5 by Reuters.

Last year, the SEC charged Ripple with securities fraud in connection with the selling of its XRP tokens. The company’s owners, Chris Larsen, and Brad Garlinghouse were both charged with selling over $700 million worth of tokens for personal benefit.

According to cryptoslate.com, Ripple was also accused of token manipulation, unlicensed securities sales, paying to get listed on crypto exchanges, and paying for “fake” partnerships with some of its “partner” companies, according to the December 2020 lawsuit.

Despite the claims, Ripple claims that its Asian operations are largely unaffected.

“It (the lawsuit) has hindered activity in the United States, but it has not really impacted what’s going on for us in the Asia Pacific,” said Garlinghouse. He cited ‘regulatory clarity’ as the prime reason for continual operations in Asia and Japan.

Garlinghouse went on to say that he wasn’t aware of any crypto exchanges outside of the US that had stopped trading XRP. “XRP is traded on over 200 exchanges around the world. It’s really only three or four exchanges in the United States that have halted trading,” he said.

He noted: “We’re seeing the activity of XRP liquidity has grown outside the United States and continue to grow in Asia, certainly in Japan.”