Ripple will launch crypto service for financial firms even with ongoing battle with SEC

On Tuesday, Ripple announce that it’ll be launching a new product focused on companies that offer financial services. According to Ripple, the new product it will be launching will let these financial companies offer their customers a platform and/or a platform to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

The company said the feature is called Liquidity Hub and will provide its client companies access to various digital assets from a variety of sources; from market makers, to exchange platforms, trading desks, etc. With the product, Ripple’s clients will be able to provide trading of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, etc. The company plans to extend this product to NFTs also in the long run as NFTs are continually making waves and the booming sector has a lot of prospective. The company said that the feature is still currently in its preview stage but will launch in 2022. “We have a long history of working with financial institutions, crypto exchanges, brokerages and market makers, which our enterprise customers can now directly benefit from. We’re planning to support a variety of assets and have plans to expand to more tokenized assets like NFTs in the future”, Asheesh Birla, the General Manager of RippleNet said.

Headquartered in San Francisco, the startup came into existence in 2012. It is the owner of its network’s cryptocurrency called XRP. Currently, there is almost $60 billion worth of XRP tokens in circulation and XRP is the world’s seventh-largest cryptocurrency, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Apart from its XRP, which it promotes for seamless and convenient payments, the company also operates a platform it calls RippleNet. RippleNet is a financial messaging service used by financial institutions to make cross-border settlements.

Ripple is announcing its new product amid kerfuffles with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company, alongside its executives Chris Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse are being sued for raising over $1.3 billion through an unregistered securities offering. The company is, however, playing defence and says that XRP should not be considered as a security.

Irrespective of the fact that it is in a battle with the SEC, this might actually be a good time for the company to announce its new product. Cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum have been rallying strong since this week began. Ethereum hit a new all-time high of $4,700 on Monday and went on to surpass this milestone on Tuesday after hitting a new all-time high of $4,800. Bitcoin also hit a new all-time high of more than $68,000 on Tuesday. There are high hopes for the aforementioned cryptocurrencies as adoption rates continue to rise and big names continue to associate with them.

According to Asheesh Birla, the General Manager of RippleNet, the company new product can be seen as an “aggregator for various liquidity venues and individual assets, the way that Google Flights is for airlines and flights”. The General Manager also revealed that the product has been in development for the past two years. Ripple mentioned that the first customer to use the new product is Coinme, a Bitcoin exchange and ATM operator based in the US.

Speaking about the company’s battle with the SEC, Asheesh Birla said that “despite headwinds in the U.S. with the SEC, our traction with customers globally hasn’t slowed down”.