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‘Ripple’s XRP Is Not a Security’, Says U.S. Congressman

On August 20, the American delegate from Minnesota Tom Emmer hosted the first “Cryptocurrency Town Hall”. That event was organized together with the PAC of the Chamber of Digital Commerce. Most of the attendees were the innovators in the crypto industry. They included Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, BitPay CEO Stephan Pair, Bloq co-founder, and chairman Matthew Roszak, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, eToro CEO Guy Hirsch, and Paxos co-founder and CEO Chad Cascarilla. The issues on whether XRP is a security or nor was also touched.

In the event, Emmer said that he is ready to accept donations for his election campaign in cryptos through BitPay. Moreover, Emmer also said that the U.S. Congress should leave the Silk Road stigma for cryptos behind. For the industry to thrive, the Congress should start promoting cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies.

Particularly, he also highlighted on Ripple and the XRP token saying that XRP is not a security. Emmer urged the U.S. Congress and mostly the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to finally offer regulatory clarity:

“We moved on from Silk Road. It’s a long time ago, but there’s a lot of members of congress that still think of this in terms of Silk Road. […] First on, my position is very clear XRP is not a security. My frustration is, you probably heard it very directly, […]. Over two years is not only a problem, but it is also absolutely unacceptable because what this does is, it puts entrepreneurs like you and everybody else in this Townhall, you start looking elsewhere.”

When regulatory infrastructure is not clear, investors tend to shift elsewhere and money flows where it is easiest to go. The more the U.S. government puts in obstacles, the less chance you have to position the United States as the leader.

Emmer is among the cryptocurrency-friendly politicians. He also serves as the co-chair of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus. The politician joined an ever-growing list of his colleagues to accept crypto donations to fund his re-election campaign.

If such town hall sessions are organized throughout the United States, it will be a stepping stone for engaging policymakers. Currently, the input of policymakers is key to coming up with a clear regulatory framework.

In the same event, Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple CEO, also answered many questions in the comments section. He made some interesting statements. One member of the community asked Brad about the rumor of a partnership between Bank of America and Ripple. The CEO chose to give an ambiguous answer without denying the rumor:

“I can neither confirm nor deny it.”

David Schwartz, the Ripple CTO, also commented on this answer. He validated the rumor indirectly:

“I would have just said ‘Glomar’.”

Garlinghouse also highlighted the progress of SBI Ripple Asia’s implementation of the XRP operating on the On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) payment solution. Reports indicate that the joint venture between Ripple and SBI Holdings is currently testing ODL.

Additionally, the Ripple CEO also commented on the Flare Network. This Network allows the execution of smart contracts on the XRP Ledger which can allow the XRP Ledger to have access to its local DeFi sector.

The On-Demand Liquidity solution currently supports Australia, the Philippines, and Mexican markets. Ripple recently said that support for Brazil is ‘coming soon’. Additional corridors across Europe, Middle-East and Africa (EMEA), Asia-Pacific (APAC), and Latin America (LatAm) are in the pipeline this year.

SVP of product and corporate development at Ripple, Asheesh Birla, confirmed that 20% RippleNet transactions happens through the XRP digital asset. Birla tweeted:

“Our On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) product using XRP as a bridge currency accounts for nearly a fifth of all transactions on RippleNet.”

For now, the cumulative transaction volume of RippleNet or ODL is unknown. ODL leverages XRP by default. On the other hand, RippleNet does not leverage the digital asset by default but users have the option of using it if they want. Ripple said in November 2019 that over 25 customers use its ODL solution, including Viamericas and MoneyGram. Nonetheless, most of them get incentives from Ripple for using the solution.

‘Ripple’s XRP Is Not a Security’, Says U.S. Congressman

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