They also don’t know that the ad’s placement in Union Station is, in fact, quite symbolic. It’s located on the exact route commuting securities lawyers and bankers take on their way to the headquarters of Wall Street’s top cop, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, whose lobby is located down the hall.
For nearly two years, the SEC has been locked in a high-profile lawsuit with Ripple and the outcome could decide the scope of crypto enforcement proposed by SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. The ad in Union Station is not just a way for the company to tout its product — it’s also a message from Ripple to the SEC that it's not backing down.
As FOX Business has previously reported, the SEC in 2020 filed charges alleging that Ripple and its executives violated securities laws by selling the digital token XRP to bankroll its business. The SEC contends Ripple should have registered XRP as a security. Ripple says XRP is not a security, thus the sales were totally legal.
Gensler, who became SEC chief in 2021, has aggressively pursued the civil litigation. People close to him say he’s hoping that a legal victory would cement his status as crypto’s chief regulator. More importantly for Gensler, it could give him carte blanche to declare just about every digital coin, except maybe bitcoin, unregistered securities as he seeks to reign in what he believes is rampant abuse and corruption in the $1 trillion industry.
