Last week, a New York judge delivered a watershed ruling for Ripple determining that XRP, a cryptocurrency Ripple is closely associated with, in itself was “not necessarily a security on its face,” contesting, in part, claims from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission against the company.
Ripple has been fighting the SEC for the past three years over allegations from the agency that Ripple and two of its executives conducted an illegal offering of $1.3 billion worth via sales of XRP. Ripple disputed the claims, insisting XRP cannot be considered a security and is more akin to a commodity.
Ripple’s business suffered as a result, with the company losing at least one customer and investor. MoneyGram, the U.S. money transfer giant, ditched its partnership with Ripple in March 2021.
Meanwhile, Tetragon, a U.K.-based investor that previously backed Ripple, sold its stake back to Ripple after unsuccessfully trying to sue the company to redeem its cash.
Asked whether the ruling meant that American banks would return to Ripple to use its ODL product, Alderoty said: “I think the answer to that is yes.”
Ripple also uses blockchain in its business to send messages between banks, kind of like a blockchain-based alternative to Swift.
“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,” Alderoty told CNBC Friday.
“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 real business,” he added.