Brad Garlinghouse: Ripple will leave the US if it loses its lawsuit with the SEC

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said that if the company loses its SEC lawsuit, it could move out of the US. Garlinghouse plans to open an office in Toronto.

At the end of last year, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple, accusing the company of illegally conducting a $1.3 billion ICO. The regulator claims that XRP is a security, and the parties still cannot reach an agreement. At the Collision conference in Toronto, Brad Garlinghouse said that if the court rules in favor of the SEC, this will not affect the crypto industry in any way, and the company will simply move to another jurisdiction.

“If Ripple loses the lawsuit, will anything change for cryptocurrencies?” Garlinghouse asks.

In April, Ripple scored a “small” victory in a case against the SEC after Judge Sarah Netburn denied a regulator’s request to bring in documentation related to a speech by former Commission Chairman William Hinman. In 2018, he argued that bitcoin and ether are not considered securities. Garlinghouse is trying to prove that the “nature” of XRP is similar to BTC and ETH.

However, the SEC insists that Hinman expressed his personal opinion, and did not express the position of the department. An investigation is now underway into whether Hinman had a conflict of interest when he delivered his controversial speech. The results of the investigation can greatly influence the outcome of the case.

Ripple recently announced plans to open an office in Toronto, creating about 50 new jobs. In addition to Ripple’s 300 employees in the US, the same number of people work for the company abroad, so the change of jurisdiction will not be a big deal for the firm. Perhaps, in this way, Ripple is “preparing the ground” for any scenario.

Earlier, Garlinghouse said that due to excessive pressure from US regulators, the company could change jurisdiction to the UK.