The top lawyer for US-based Ripple Labs said that the company no longer generates most of its income in the United States and is interested in expanding its operations in Europe.
Earlier this week, Steve Alderoty, the General Counsel at Ripple, said that the company was not really operating much within the US because of the impact of its legal battle with the country’s regulatory body.
Ripple Labs and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have been embroiled in a legal battle for almost two years now.
Europe expansion
The lawyer said that the company’s revenue and customers are mostly outside the United States, even though it does have employees in the country.
Meanwhile, Ripple is busy expanding its operations across Europe. Currently, there are two employees of the startup that are based in the Republic of Ireland.
He disclosed that they were reaching out to the Irish central bank in order to obtain a virtual asset service provider (VASP) license, which will allow it to provide its services throughout the European Union through its Irish entity.
Alderoty also said that the company would also submit an application shortly for obtaining an electronic money license.
Ripple is committed to continuing its expansion in Europe, even though the crypto market is experiencing a rather severe downturn, which has been widely referred to as the ‘crypto winter’.
A VASP license has been granted by the Irish central bank to the Gemini crypto exchange.
The SEC case
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had filed a lawsuit against Ripple, along with its top executives, for selling its XRP token illegally.
XRP had first been introduced in 2012 and the SEC has alleged that it was not registered as a security before its founders decided to sell it.
Ripple has countered that the XRP token is not a security because it is not an investment contract; it is used for conducting cross border transactions between financial institutions like banks.
A ruling
It is expected that there will be a ruling from the case in the first half of next year. November 30th is the deadline for the final legal briefs.
After that, it will be up to the judge to determine if there will be a ruling, or if it will have to be referred to a jury trial in case of a disputed fact.
Alderoty said that they were approaching the end of their legal battle. He also said that even though they were in the midst of a lawsuit, they were closely working with US policymakers.
At one point, the XRP token had been the third-largest crypto in the market due to its market cap and its value in 2018 had stood at $120 billion.
However, there has been a sharp drop since then, partly due to the regulatory scrutiny in the US and partly because of the downturn in the market.
The shocking downfall of the FTX exchange last week has resulted in yet another rout in the industry.