Ripple's Stablecoin Launch

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, announced that the company is "very close" to launching its U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin.

Speaking at the Korea Blockchain Week in Seoul, South Korea, Garlinghouse revealed, "We're in a private kind of closed beta. It's called Ripple USD. RLUSD has been minted in that framework. We will certainly launch soon. Weeks, not months."

Last month, Ripple began testing RLUSD on two blockchain networks. Monica Long, the company's president, mentioned that the stablecoin is designed to complement XRP tokens.

Garlinghouse noted, "I mean, 18 months ago, USDC debugged, and we felt like there was an opportunity for a credible player already working with many financial institutions to lean into that market."

No Interest in US IPO

When questioned about a potential initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S., Garlinghouse was clear. He said he has "no interest" in Ripple going public in the U.S. due to the Securities and Exchange Commission's "pretty hostile" stance towards crypto.

"SEC approved Coinbase going public in the United States, and now the SEC is suing Coinbase for the same things they approved," Garlinghouse pointed out. He advised entrepreneurs, "Don't incorporate in the United States. You're just asking for more legal bills."

Post-Election Forecast

Garlinghouse is confident that the crypto industry will thrive regardless of who wins the upcoming U.S. presidential election. He stated, "No matter who wins the United States election, we'll see new leadership in the U.S. SEC."

He added that current SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has lost popularity within his party and across the aisle. "I heard that loud and clear at the Democratic National Convention. I heard that loud and clear at the Republican National Convention," he said.

Ripple's Legal Battle

Ripple recently celebrated a significant legal victory. The company was ordered to pay a fine of $125 million, a stark reduction from the SEC's proposed $2 billion. Garlinghouse said, "There aren't many companies that can stand up to a bully.

The SEC has a lot of power, and it takes a lot of money and a lot of conviction to fight that." He emphasized that Ripple believed from the start that they were "on the right side of the law and that we'd be on the right side of history."

OpenSea Enforcement 'Unfortunate'

Garlinghouse also criticized the SEC's recent enforcement action against NFT marketplace OpenSea. He called it "unfortunate," arguing, "They're assuming that NFTs are securities. There's already been case law about how art, meaning traditional art, is not [securities]."

He added, "Just because someone might speculate on the price of a piece of art that it might go up, doesn't make it a security. So I think [the SEC has] a losing case."

"Not every company can spend over $150 million defending themselves," Garlinghouse said, referring to Ripple's legal expenses. Despite these challenges, Garlinghouse remains "optimistic" about the next five years of crypto.

He believes legislative clarity is on the horizon, driven not by the SEC but by elected officials. He highlighted FIT 21, or the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, as a positive legislative movement in the U.S.