“In a 2015 civil enforcement by FinCEN, Ripple Labs was accused of violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) by acting as a money services business (MSB) and selling XRP without registering with FinCEN. It also failed to implement and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering (AML) program. A settlement agreement ensued, criminal charges were resolved, and Ripple was fined $450,000 USD. Critically to the debate, the trading of XRP was permitted.”

“The currency of the Ripple network, known as ‘XRP’ was pre-mined. In other words, unlike some other virtual currencies, XRP was fully generated prior to its distribution. As of 2015, XRP is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, after Bitcoin.”

The security debate continues to surround Ripple and Ripple XRP, the native currency to the Ripple network. Very recently, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have spoken out stating that both Bitcoin and Ethereum do not carry the necessary attributes to be considered a security however, there’s still no official news regarding XRP. Of course, as we know, one of the key things this security association is having on XRP is that it is preventing big exchanges such as Coinbase from listing XRP. If XRP did see a listing on Coinbase, it would certainly benefit in terms of trading volume and ultimately, value. Over the weekend, we have seen information across Twitter that refers to a ruling made in 2015 by the United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Many believe that this FinCEN ruling cannot be overruled by any SEC rulings and that as a result, regardless of the SEC’s final say, Ripple XRP cannot be categorised as a security. According to Bitcoinist.com:Most importantly, as a part of this permission, final wording from FinCEN stated:You can see the full report by Bitcoinist for yourself, here- http://bitcoinist.com/great-ripple-debate-fincen-ruling-labels-xrp-currency-not-security/ How much bearing does this actually have, now? Obviously, this statement comes from 2015, since then the financial and political worlds have changed. However, if the report is correct and FinCEN do have the final say in this, then any further SEC ruling will either be deemed irrelevant, or, hopefully, the SEC will use this to inform their own decision in the future. By this, I mean, perhaps the SEC will use this to justify their own final decision regarding Ripple XRP . What ever happens, this news is sure to stir up some more informed debate surrounding a topic that seems to be getting hotter by the day. It’s only a matter of time before the SEC weigh back in on this.