Ripple Says US Banks Might Want to Use XRP After Recent Victory Against SEC

Last week, blockchain startup Ripple registered a landmark victory against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in its long-going battle against securities law violations.

Now that Ripple’s native cryptocurrency XRP doesn’t have the tag of a ‘security’, the company is confident that U.S. banks and other financial institutions will start showing interest in the adoption of XRP for cross-border payments.

In an interview with CNBC last week, Ripple’s general counsel, Stu Alderoty said that Ripple plans to engage in discussions with US financial firms in the third quarter regarding the use of its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) product. This product utilizes XRP for efficient money transfers.

When asked if the ruling would lead American banks to resume using Ripple’s ODL product, Alderoty responded affirmatively, stating “I think the answer to that is yes”. He further added:

“I think we’re hopeful that this decision would give financial institution customers or potential customers comfort to at least come in and start having the conversation about what problems they are experiencing in their business, real-world problems in terms of moving value across borders without incurring obscene fees. Hopefully this quarter will generate a lot of conversations in the United States with customers, and hopefully some of those conversations will actually turn into a real business”.

Amid its legal battle with the SEC for the past two-and-a-half years, Ripple had been sourcing most of its business from outside the U.S. Amid its legal battle with the US SEC, several US partners of Ripple had parted ways with the company. For e.g. in March 2021, the U.S. money-transfer giant MoneyGram ditched its partnership with Ripple back in March 2021.

Similarly, Tetragon, a U.K.-based investor that had previously supported Ripple, sold its stake back to the company. This decision came after Tetragon’s unsuccessful attempt to sue Ripple in order to redeem its cash.

Ripple XRP Use for Money Transfer

XRP is a type of digital money that Ripple uses to send funds internationally. It is one of the largest cryptocurrencies available, worth about $37.8 billion.

Ripple uses XRP as a middle currency when transferring money between different types, such as from U.S. dollars to Mexican pesos. This helps solve the problem of needing to have money ready in advance on the receiving end of a transfer.

Ripple claims that using XRP allows for extremely fast money transfers, taking only a fraction of a second. But the recent ruling is still not a complete victory for Ripple. Although the judge said that XRP doesn’t qualify as a ‘security’, she did add that Ripple’s institutional sales of XRP qualify as securities.

Alderoty mentioned that this part of the ruling would not have a significant impact on Ripple’s current business operations since most of its customers are based outside the United States. “We’ll study the the judge’s decision, we’ll look at our clients’ needs to look at the market, and see if there’s a situation here that complies with the four corners of what the judge found when it comes to institutions,” he said.