Famous trader Peter Brandt referred to the XRP cryptocurrency as “garbage” in reaction to a tweet regarding Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb’s transactions.
It only goes to show that garbage can create a billionaire, tweeted the veteran chartist. After an eight-year selling spree, Ripple has verified to U.Today that Jed McCaleb has sold off his XRP holdings. Selling his tokens for more than 708 BTC netted the co-founder an estimated $3,09 billion. Ripple’s co-founder has also sold his investment in the company.
By Forbes’ estimates, McCaleb has a fortune of $2.1 billion. Ripple and Mt. Gox co-founder Stellar went on to develop a successful cryptocurrency project after a disagreement. Brandt has emphasized time and over again that XRP is an unregistered investment. Even with regulatory ambiguity surrounding the controversial cryptocurrency, Brandt said he was open to holding it under the appropriate circumstances.
This same trader termed cryptocurrency a scam in 2020 and predicted that SEC would prosecute Ripple for deceptive practices. Other altcoins have also come under fire from Brandt. According to the trader, Chainlink (LINK) became popular among traders who discovered that XRP was fraud in June 2020. XRP has lost as much as 89.49 percent of its value since its all-time high, making it one of the most undervalued cryptocurrencies on the market.
Why is SEC Ignoring McCaleb?
Jed McCaleb, one of the largest XRP investors, sold his final XRPs over the weekend, earning $3.09B and 708 Bitcoins since 2014. John Deaton, the lawyer for Ripple, asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) why it hasn’t investigated him yet. He also accused the agency of being insanely contradictory and illegitimate in its accusations of wrongdoing at Ripple.
XRP sales have generated $2.56 billion in revenue for McCaleb as of the date of the lawsuit’s filing, according to Deaton. He also claims that CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Chairman Chris Larsen violated Section 5 of the Securities Act.
According to the SEC, Ripple raised nearly $1.3 billion from its ICO sales between 2013 and 2020. The agency filed a lawsuit against the company and its officials in December 2020. The corporation offered unregistered XRPs as securities and thereby broke the Securities Act, according to the SEC. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said executives Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen made considerable gains.
Filed Lawsuit
Attorney John Deaton from the Ripple legal team wants to know why the SEC took Jed McCaleb off the list of people accused of breaking the Securities Act by selling XRP. To put it in perspective, Jed McCaleb has made $2.56 billion in XRP sales since they filed the lawsuit. The SEC is asking for nearly Twice that amount from the Defendants who were sued, according to attorney John Deaton.
How insanely inconsistent and illegitimate arguments against Ripple are, says Deaton. The SEC’s claims that XRP is security are based on a misunderstanding of what security is. According to Ripple’s lawyer, the SEC would have tried to stop Ripple from selling XRPs regularly if it felt today’s XRP was a security. He said they would have used a cease-and-desist letter to halt the former Ripple co-XRP founder’s sales.
On the other hand, the commission hasn’t done anything about it. The company’s counsel, meanwhile, questioned whether they didn’t initiate the XRP lawsuit for the “sole goal of enforcing securities laws” due to its lack of reaction.
