Ripple Owns A ‘Lot of XRP’ & Invested in the ‘Success Of The Ledger’, But it Isn’t A Security

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who said Facebook launching its cryptocurrency project has been good for Ripple station at that time,

“This is going to be a record week for Ripple.”

He even said he will be sending

“a case of champagne to David Marcus the guy who runs Libra.”

But now he doubts if the stablecoin dubbed Libra would even see the light of the day. According to him, the social media giant won’t be able to launch it for at least three years — if ever.

“I would bet that Libra…let's say, by the end of 2022, I think Libra will not have launched,”

Garlinghouse said in an interview with Fortune's “Balancing the Ledger.”

And would Facebook be able to follow through on the vision it had for its cryptocurrency project, Garlinghouse has a simple one-word answer for that, “No.”

As for why, he said,

“the regulatory headwinds they’re facing are substantial.”

Libra would have Better Chances if FB wasn’t Part of it: Brad

Recently, PayPal, one of the members of the Libra Association, backed out of the project amidst the reports that many of these members have been reconsidering their participation.

Libra, it has been revealed is 50 percent backed by the US dollar but Chinese yuan isn’t part of its fiat bucket.

Moreover, it has been facing heightened regulatory scrutiny from governments all over the world. The company is already battling controversy over the collection and use of consumer data that is further making it difficult to convince the regulators.

“I think maybe [Libra] would have been better received if Facebook had not been the point of the arrow,”

Garlinghouse explained.

“Facebook has been in the crosshairs of a bunch of governments around the world.”

“I think it's going to be a tough road,”

Garlingouse said.

XRP Ledger Existed before Ripple the Company: Brad on Security Issue

However, Ripple faces its own share of regulatory scrutiny, particularly over whether it's digital currency XRP should be classified as a security.

“One really important distinction is, the XRP ledger existed before Ripple the company,”

Garlinghouse says.

“Certainly we are an interested party in the success of the XRP ledger, for sure—we own a lot of XRP. But it’s a little bit like saying, Exxon owns a lot of oil. That doesn’t make oil a security.”