Ripple may soon unveil new positive developments in its projects related to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC), following what was stated on Tuesday by one of its top advisors in the field of state digital currencies, Antony Welfare, who spoke of more announcements in the coming weeks.
JUST IN: #Ripple Senior Advisor says there will be CBDC announcements in the coming weeks.
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) September 6, 2022
Ripple and institutions
Ripple is one of the companies most involved in perhaps the largest number of projects, which are currently reported to be more than 80 in as many countries around the world, related to the development of digital state currencies, as evidenced by its recent collaboration with Digital Euro Association, a think tank that specializes precisely in the study and development of projects related to stablecoins and digital state currencies, and which is primarily working on the study and development of a new digital euro.
We’re excited to join the Digital Euro Association as a supporting partner to further develop our work with #CBDCs!
This is one part of our larger goal to develop and deliver global solutions for CBDCs and stablecoins through our #blockchain and #crypto expertise. https://t.co/8KODIKLP5y
— Ripple (@Ripple) February 11, 2022
Welfare with a number of tweets in recent weeks has seemed to hint that there will be big news on the CBDC issue, stating in response to a user’s tweet about Ripple’s new projects in Bhutan and the Republic of Palau that he was holding himself ready for upcoming major new announcements on the subject
Thanks @sentosumosaba for the mention – make sure you follow me for more CBDC announcements in the next few weeks ???
— Antony Welfare (@AntonyWelfare) September 6, 2022
The company has become a benchmark for many states and central banks intent on exploring the world of CBDCs since March 2021 when it developed a private version of XRP Ledger, specifically created to become a platform for central banks to issue CBDCs securely.
“Ripple offers a complete platform for minting, managing, transacting, and destroying CBDCs. Each solution is built on a private ledger that is based upon XRP Ledger technology—a proven blockchain that has transacted over 70 million times over the course of 10 years and is trusted by financial institutions around the world”,
the company explains on its website with regard to the platform
The Digital Dollar project recently signed a partnership with four companies including Ripple itself, for the new and innovative “Technical Sandbox Program” launched by the US think tank, and aimed at exploring the potential technical and commercial ramifications of a CBDC in the US.
“For Ripple, Crypto is in our DNA”, Welfare said in a recent interview.
“Our RippleX business unit is focused on making it easy for developers to build on and with the XRP Ledger, as well as partnering with others in the crypto space on use cases like NFTs and CBDCs (aka tokenised assets).”
In June, the company, just to reinforce its relevance and weight in the CBDC industry, launched its first online CBDC hackathon (a kind of competition for computer scientists) called “Ripple CBDC Innovate.”
The competition would feature 483 experts, who were invited to create CBDC-focused applications to improve interoperability with digital assets.
Ripple’s problems with the SEC
The choice fell on Ripple precisely because of its significant infrastructure with regard to CBDCs, despite the fact that the company has been facing a court case with the SEC for more than two years over an alleged unauthorized sale of financial products.
In fact, it has been since December 2020 that the SEC has been in court against Ripple, which might still be categorized as a security.
Indeed, the US Securities and Exchange Commission accuses Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen of selling XRP, Ripple’s native token, as if it were an unregistered security offering. Ripple, by contrast, is seeking to assert that XRP is not a security.
The SEC seems destined for defeat, but the jury is still out.
