DAVOS, SWITZERLAND — Ripple has explored markets outside the United States for its initial public offering, CEO Brad Garlinghouse told CNBC, blaming a “hostile” regulator.
The company has suspended any plans for an initial public offering for now, Garlinghouse said.
However, speaking to CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Garlinghouse said that Ripple “looked at other jurisdictions that have clear rules of the road” to go public.
Ripple's CEO said his company has not yet gone public in the United States due to the actions of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“In the United States, it doesn't seem very interesting to me to try to advertise to a very hostile regulator that has approved your S-1,” Garlinghouse said.
“Obviously Coinbase got their S-1 approved. And now the SEC is suing them for doing things that were identified in the S-1.”
An S-1 is a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission prior to an IPO in the United States that outlines information such as a company's financial performance and the key risks of investing in the company.
Coinbase is listed in the US, and the SEC filed a lawsuit against Coinbase last year alleging that the company was acting as an unregistered broker and exchange.
Garlinghouse has been critical over the past few years to the SEC's approach to regulating the cryptocurrency industry.
On Tuesday, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler called it a “political liability.” He said he believed there would be a new SEC chairman and then his company could consider listing in the United States.
The SEC did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
Ripple's CEO said he is keeping “the option of an IPO open” and will evaluate it “over time.”
“And we will evaluate again, since we have new regulators in the US Securities and Exchange Commission,” he said.
However, Garlinghouse clarified that going public is now not an “immediate priority” for Ripple.
Reuters reported this month that Ripple had bought back shares from its shareholders. Garlinghouse confirmed this and said that the company has so far bought back $1 billion of its shares.
“You know, shareholder liquidity is important to me. We have investors who first invested in Ripple in 2012. So they've been in this deal for eleven and a half years. And so we want to provide that liquidity, which is one of the reasons,” Garlinghouse said. “Why are we submitting these tender offers?”
The buyback came after a booming year for cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin rose more than 150% last year. This has restored confidence in some cryptocurrency companies.
Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, filed for an initial public offering in the United States this month.
