By Solomon Odunayo
Brian Brooks, the chairman of the United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OOC) until mid-January 2020, has also joined a list of experts and lawyers that have aired their opinions regarding the current securities case between Ripple Labs and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In an interview with Coindesk, Brian Brooks stated that he believes a settlement in the lawsuit between the United States regulator and Ripple Labs is most likely.
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Brian Brooks Predicts Ripple-SEC Lawsuit Settlement
Brooks was not specific on whether XRP is a security under United States law. He, however, stated that XRP will possibly have a very different valuation basis in 2021 than when it was first issued.
“I can tell you what I think is the most important issue on XRP and that is: There is a difference between the way an asset is distributed and the nature of an asset in a given moment in time.
“And I think the issue with Ripple that gets lost in all the discussion is: whatever happened in the original distribution of XRP tokens 10 years ago and whether this was or wasn’t an unregistered security offering. That’s what the courts will decide – that’s a different question from whether XRP today is a security. And the SEC itself has said that assets can change the nature over time as they achieve utility and achieve decentralization.”
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Conclusively, Brooks predicted that settlement is the most likely outcome of the legal battle between Ripple and the SEC, which is similar to the recent prediction of the blockchain and crypto lawyer, Stephen Palley. According to Brooks, Ripple’s XRP escrow accounts will play a big role in the settlement:
“If I had to make a prediction, I’ll just make a quick prediction and that is that there is a settlement to be done here somewhere the settlement has to do with the distribution of the token so that existing tokens holders can continue to trade them and find value the way that they do.”
Brooks Says There Will Be Positive Regulations of Crypto in the Current Regime
Brooks is also optimistic that cryptocurrencies will receive positive regulation under the current President of the United States, Joe Biden, considering a number of tech experts he has already incorporated into his team:
“Obviously there are some people coming to the Biden administration who agree with that. If it is true that Michael Barr is my successor at the OCC, I think he is likely to have a similar thesis to mine on this.
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“He has some background spending some time on the Ripple advisory board for example. And on the other hand secretary Yellen has said some relatively skeptical things. So I don’t think it’s part of an issue, it’s more who’s a tech adopter and who’s an innovator vs. who isn’t.”
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