Like many crypto projects, Ripple XRP/USD battled for survival in 2022, with U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler leading the charge.
But crypto influencer Ben Armstrong — popularly known as by his moniker, BitBoy — expects 2023 to bring an end to the Ripple curse. He also predicts Gensler will resign.
Armstrong tweeted: “2023: The year the $XRP case ends and the Ripple curse is broken. Also the year @GaryGensler is forced to resign from the @SECGov.”
While there have been no clear indications he wishes to retire, there have been calls for Gensler’s resignation since before the FTX FTT/USD collapse.
Armstrong’s prognostication must rely on a pre-trial settlement, which is something the community has hoped for but is far from guaranteed.
Ripple claimed it has spent more than $100 million defending its case against the SEC — and in essence resisting XRP and crypto in general from being regulated as a security.
Legal team head and traditional finance pro Stuart Alderoty enlisted former Obama administration SEC chair Mary Jo White and her former deputy chair Andrew Ceresney to debate the SEC.
Ripple claims that it is fighting this battle in order to stop over-reaching regulation by the SEC for the whole crypto industry.
The SEC accused Ripple CEO Bradley Galinhouse and co-founder Christian Larsen of misleading the public by failing to register XRP as a security.
Ripple raised more than $1.3 billion through the initial coin offering (ICO) according to the lawsuit filed in December 2020.
In a countersuit, Ripple argued that XRP isn’t an “investment contract” and shouldn’t be regulated by the SEC. The filing states: “The undisputed facts show that these “essential ingredients of an investment contract are missing here.”
Cover image by Sergei Tokmakov, Esq. from Pixabay.
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