SEC Classified Security Or Not, Ripple (XRP) Is Adding To Legal Team For Regulatory Risks

Ripple, a blockchain-based company that aims to overtake traditional banking services through its own proclaimed “instant payments services”, currently fears that the lack of a regulatory team can put them in a tight situation.

The Senior Vice President of product at Ripple, Asheesh Birla confirms that Ripple has been a controversial firm when it comes to regulations. He stressed the fact that Ripple is,

“in an environment where regulation is important, adding the fact that it is also their “biggest risk. To ensure that the next set of clients do not run into regulatory concerns, the team at hand has decided that a team of regulators is essential. Birla elaborated on the decision by saying that “[…] The next 1000 customers that we want to bring on, which we think can do in the next two years, that regulation is not going to be an issue.”

With the U.S Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) on the hunt for ICOs and cryptocurrencies and deciding on which make the list of securities and which don’t have been stressful for Ripple.

In particular, SEC hitherto announced that both Ethereum [ETH] and Bitcoin [BTC] will not be considered securities, leaving room for assumptions that the remaining cryptos do fall under the “securities” category. However, CEO of Ripple Labs, Brad Garlinghouse has and continues to argue the fact that the XRP token, Ripple’s native token, should not be classified as a security.

Garlinghouse previously shared that XRP cannot be a token, as it supposedly has nothing to do with Ripple, that is, that the two are “independent” of each other. He also added that,

“XRP would operate even if Ripple Labs failed. I don’t think that our ownership of XRP gives us control”.

When it came to discussing the nature of cryptocurrencies and how consumers view them, like many influential leaders, Birla shared the fact that cryptos are still “comparatively new”, making it normal for confusion to spark. Despite it all, he believes that the digital currencies have the potential to redefine several industries and how we do things today.

According to CoinSpeaker, Birla also acknowledged the fact that Ripple’s employees were not offered benefit packages – like most firms would offer – making it harder for the project to gain “specialists”. However, this seems to be changing and Ripple will be one of many blockchain-based firms to take the necessary steps to offer what rightfully should be made to its employees.