The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says that Ripple Lab’s planned new stablecoin qualifies as an “unregistered crypto asset.”
In a new court filing, the regulatory agency says that not only has Ripple been selling XRP – the digital asset used to operate the XRP Ledger – as an unregistered security since 2013, but it also plans on launching a new token that would be an unregistered security.
“Ripple’s primary business continues to be, as it has been since 2013, unregistered sales of XRP. It also plans to issue a new unregistered crypto asset. And the Court already found that Ripple’s ODL (on-demand liquidity) institutional sales up to 2020 violate the law…
Under the law, even if Ripple had not committed a single violation since 2020, another violation could still ‘be anticipated.'”
Last month, Ripple announced that it is planning on launching new stablecoin on Ethereum (ETH) and the XRP ledger. Ripple says the dollar-pegged digital asset, which has yet to be given a name, will be fully backed by cash, short-term US government treasuries, and other cash equivalents.
Ripple also said the stablecoin will find its way to other blockchains, but did not specify which.
The SEC first sued Ripple in 2020, accusing the firm of selling XRP as an unregistered security.
Last year, Ripple was handed a partial victory against the SEC after a judge ruled that the firm’s open-market sales of XRP do not qualify as security offerings as the regulatory body claimed. However, the judge did agree with the SEC that Ripple selling XRP to institutional buyers qualified as selling a security.
XRP is trading for $0.527 at time of writing, a 2.34% decrease during the last 24 hours.
Don't Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inboxGenerated Image: Midjourney