Ripple has warned that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is set to file a lawsuit against the company over the alleged sale of unlicensed securities, in this case, the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap XRP.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the “lawsuit revolves around whether XRP, a digital asset that the company launched in 2012, is actually a security that should have been registered with the SEC.” The lawsuit will name Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and cofounder Chris Larsen as defendants, Garlinghouse said.

The CEO has blasted the agency’s decision to sue ahead of the holidays and added Ripple will fight the case. He said it’s “not just Grinch-worthy, it’s shocking.” Per Garlinghouse, it’s “an attack on the entire crypto industry and American innovation.”

Ripple has aggressively pushed back the notion that XRP is a security for years. While the Sec has determined both BTC and ETH are not securities because of their decentralized nature, 100 billion XRP were minted without the mining process, which left Ripple – the firm that owns the majority of the XRP – under scrutiny.

The lawsuit is also coming months after Larsen and other Ripple executives suggested the company may relocate to outside of the United States, in response to what they claim to be overbearing behavior by regulators.

Source: https://www.cryptocompare.com/email-updates/daily/2020/dec/22/