Crypto firm Ripple says over 80% of hiring this year outside US

RIPPLE Labs said more than 80 per cent of its hiring this year will be outside the US, where the crypto payments company is embroiled in a long-running legal dispute with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In jurisdictions such as Singapore, Hong Kong, the UK and Dubai, “governments are partnering with the industry and you’re seeing leadership, they’re providing clear rules and you’re seeing growth”, Ripple’s chief executive officer Brad Garlinghouse said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Wednesday (Sep 13).

The SEC under chair Gary Gensler has clamped down on digital assets following a market rout in 2022 and ensuing bankruptcies, such as the collapse of the FTX exchange. Gensler insists most tokens are securities and fall under the agency’s regulatory purview. Meanwhile, Congress is making slow progress in developing legislation to clarify the status of crypto.

Earlier this month, Ripple objected to an SEC request to appeal a court ruling that tokens aren’t securities when sold to the public. The SEC sued Ripple in 2020, alleging the company failed to register the XRP token as a security.

Garlinghouse said Ripple has spent well over US$100 million in legal fees, adding that he’s optimistic about prevailing in the case. “You have a government that has unlimited resources to keep fighting a fight they’ve already lost,” he said.

Garlinghouse was speaking in Singapore on the sidelines of a crypto conference in the city-state. BLOOMBERG