Ripple Intends To Go Public Following SEC Lawsuit, Says CEO Brad Garlinghouse

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says that the San Francisco-based payments company wants to go public once its legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is resolved.

In an interview during the Consensus 2021 event, Garlinghouse commends Coinbase following the crypto exchange’s debut on the Nasdaq in April.

“I give Coinbase a huge amount of credit. They have been a leader across crypto here in the United States for years and getting them out, I think, is good for crypto overall. I think what I said is, you know Ripple wouldn’t be the first and Ripple certainly won’t be the last.”

Garlinghouse says Ripple is considering pushing through with its plan to launch an initial public offering, but it will have to wait until the lawsuit with the SEC is over.

“I think that the likelihood that Ripple is a public company is very high at some point. I think in the middle of an SEC lawsuit, you know we need to get that closed out and the SEC approves an S1, it’s easier to do that after you have closure and clarity and that regulatory certainty we have been seeking for so long.”

In January 2020, Garlinghouse revealed Ripple’s plan to go public as he predicted an IPO will happen in the crypto space over the next 12 months. In December, the SEC formally filed a complaint against the payments giant, alleging that Ripple’s native asset XRP was an unregistered security upon its launch and remains a security to this day.