American blockchain company Ripple-affiliated XRP token moves with the market as CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced that the business had just carried out a buyback of Ripple’s series C shares from December 2019, bringing its valuation to USD 15bn.
As of 10:33 UTC, XRP’s price was up 3.8% at USD 0.63, while other top coins have also registered similar gains.
Commenting on the company’s plans for this year, Garlinghouse tweeted that slowing down was “not in our vocabulary.” He went on to claim that,
“Even with 2021’s headwinds, it was our best year on record, and Ripple’s financial position ([USD] 1B in the bank) is the strongest we’ve ever been.”
The firm’s CEO also said that the RippleX, a platform that enables developers and entrepreneurs to insert payments into their application through the XRP ledger, was at “full speed ahead” with a number of projects involving non-fungible tokens (NFTs), central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), interoperability bridges, sidechains, and other products.
As part of the CBDC-related plans, last September, the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan (RMA) enlisted Ripple to help it pilot a digital currency.
Meanwhile, despite the bullish approach demonstrated by Ripple, the company’s legal woes with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could cast a shadow over Ripple’s expansion plans. The American regulator’s case against the business is centered on the accusation that its token is unregistered security.
Moreover, the agency has been trying to extend the accusation to its executives, as demonstrated by the SEC’s failed attempt to secure the personal financial records of Garlinghouse and Ripple’s Executive Chairman Chris Larsen.