Ripple’s Exec Talks about a New Product Launch, Crypto-friendly…

The market for cryptocurrencies has made its way into the world of traditional finance. Not only is there more exposure of the public to cryptocurrencies, but also the markets have been able to gain the respect of several essential investors.

Even with all the evolution, a substantial obstacle for the global adoption of cryptocurrencies seems to be the positive vision of the authorities and regulatory bodies. However, Sagar Sarbhai, Ripple’s head of regulatory relations of APAC and the Middle East believes that this problem could be solved in the future thanks to the paradigm shift in the regulatory institutions:

“A couple of years ago the narrative was blockchain good, crypto bad. But I think what we’re now seeing is that more and more regulators are taking the whole space in one conjunction [sic]. You cannot have runways built without airplanes… [T]hat narrative is thankfully changing, and policymakers are recognizing there is a strong benefit that digital (crypto) assets bring.” Sagar Sarbhai

The whole “blockchain good, crypto bad” vision has been strongly supported by actors of significant influence in the financial markets. Just as a reference; Russia and Chaina, the two most important members of the BRICS group, have openly expressed their vision of broad interest in blockchain technologies even though they have legal systems that prevent their mainstream use.

For Sarbhai this evolution in the cultural dimension of financial institutions has been crucial for “removing barriers to commerce.” He spoke about Thailand as a country that – in the last months – has been working hard to promote the creation of a robust legal system that supports the use of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies in the region (all this without losing sight of the consumer protection against possible scams or similar situations).

Sarbhai also commented that XRP is not security although he was emphatic in clarifying that the final decision on the matter is competence of the SEC. He mentioned that Ripple’s team has had frequent conversations with this organization to explain the arguments that sustain why XRP is not a security.

He also mentioned that other countries have already accepted that Ripple’s (XRP) is not a security, even creating special categories to include XRP and the rest of the cryptocurrencies within a classification of goods and investments.

Sarbhai also hinted that xRapid could go live in about a month while he was talking about the benefits of such a system:

“I am very confident that in the next one month or so you will see some good news coming in where we launch the product live in production,”

Full interview available here: