Ripple Reports ‘Banner Year’ Despite Impending SEC Legal Battle

Crypto insiders are well aware of Ripple Labs’ predicament and the sour note on which the company ended the past year. However, even with the uncertain future of the blockchain firm’s XRP token, 2020 was, all in all, a pretty good year for it. 

Smashing Records Everywhere

Earlier this week, the Silicon Valley firm published a release confirming that it saw record transactions on its RippleNet payment system. The company added that its RippleX service also has over 12 million users worldwide, all of which make transactions with its XRP Ledger, its Interledger Protocol, and services rendered by several of its partners. 

Company chief executive Brad Garlinghouse explained that the company went on an impressive hiring spree throughout the year, expanding its operations. Speaking on transactions conducted with the XRP cryptocurrency, Garlinghouse said:  

“In 2020, we processed nearly 3 million transactions over RippleNet, this is nearly 5X volume growth compared to 2019. On-Demand Liquidity continues to grow and scale, we experienced 12x year over year growth, and transactions in 2020 had a notional value of $2.4B.” 

The CEO added that interest in the company’s products remains strong, with Ripple expanding its presence to over 40 countries. Demand for its products is increasing, particularly in the Asia Pacific region, where FinTech companies, payment service providers, and SMEs have taken advantage of its services.

Looking Forward to 2021, Despite a Lingering Lawsuit

While Ripple did seem to enjoy a good year, the end of 2020 wasn’t so rosy for the firm. Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple. The agency accused the blockchain firm of offering unregistered securities in the sale of its XRP token.

The suit also roped in Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen, one of the company’s co-founders, over unreported sales of the token totaling about $600 million.

The pre-trial proceedings for the case are set to begin next month. Still, even without going to trial, Ripple has been on the back seat of this fight for a while. The lawsuit has negatively impacted XRO, causing the asset to shed over half of its value. Thankfully, the currency is on an arduous climb back.

Ripple is wasting no time in moving forward as it looks to build on what Garlinghouse called a “banner year” in 2020. Earlier this month, the company confirmed that it had connected with Mobile Money, a Malaysian mobile wallet provider. The partnership allowed Mobile Money to connect via Ripple’s payments network to bKash, the largest mobile financial services provider in Bangladesh.

While the firm will have lofty plans for this year, many of those will be contingent on the outcome of its legal battle with the SEC.