On Thursday (9 February 2023), Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse commented on the exciting developments in the regulation of the cryptocurrency industry worldwide.
In a Twitter thread posted yesterday, Garlinghouse noted that while the US lags behind, countries such as Dubai, Australia, the UK, South Korea, and Brazil have taken significant steps to clarify and support the growth of the crypto market.
He went on to say:
- Dubai has established a comprehensive set of guidelines covering various aspects of cryptocurrency, including advertising, compliance, and issuance.
- Australia’s Treasury aims to improve consumer protection and licensing for cryptocurrencies and seeks public input.
- The UK’s HM Treasury, which is the government’s economic and finance ministry, is working to create a balanced regulatory framework that will encourage innovation while preserving financial stability.
- South Korea has defined the distinction between security and payment tokens in guidelines published by its Financial Services Commission.
Garlinghouse noted that these regulatory efforts demonstrate the leadership and support that is currently missing in the US, making it an attractive environment for companies like Ripple to thrive.
On 30 January 2023, Ripple released its newest quarterly XRP Markets Report.
According to this report, the XRPL blockchain had a rise in on-chain activity despite an overall decline in the cryptocurrency market. After the XLS-20 amendment was authorized on 2 November 2022, the amount of NFT trading activity on XRPL increased dramatically, reaching more than three million transactions.
Although the number of transactions rose, the amount of XRP paid in fees fell by 33%, and the average cost of a transaction in USD was very near to $0. At the same time, the average transaction costs on Ethereum and Bitcoin were $2.75 and $1.23 respectively.
Furthermore, Ripple announced that it closed off 2022 on a strong note, having made tremendous strides in the crypto market during the year. With such high demand from both new and existing clients, the firm has kept its attention fixed on growing its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) offering. This crypto-powered payment solution is now available in approximately 40 markets, a major improvement from the three markets it was available in only two years earlier.
Recently, Ripple expanded its ODL service to France, Sweden, and Africa, in partnership with Lemonway, Xbaht, and MFS Africa, respectively. This action not only increased the company’s client base but also gave corporations the opportunity to try out the advantages of making cross-border payments using cryptocurrency.
Since its introduction, RippleNet has handled approximately $30 billion in volume and 20 million transactions. Sixty percent of such transactions were completed using ODL in 2022.
