Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse Says IPO Is Not Priority

Garlinghouse said that Ripple has put its plans for a stock market listing on the “back burner.”

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said on Oct. 17 that the company is not currently focused on conducting an initial public offering (IPO).

In an interview with the Thinking Crypto podcast, Garlinghouse said that Ripple’s current stance is the result of the “hostile” policies of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which permits companies to go public.

Garlinghouse said:

… An IPO has not been a high priority for us, and part of that is because the SEC is not our friend.

Garlinghouse added that companies often go public to urgently raise capital. Ripple, however, is in ”a strong financial position,” according to Garlinghouse, who noted that the firm has recently performed acquisitions and made investments.

Garlinghouse said that an IPO is “a back burner topic,” adding that Ripple aims to maintain an appropriate valuation without discounting any options.

Even if Ripple started working toward an IPO, completing the process could take more than twelve months to complete, he said.

The possibility of a Ripple IPO has been under discussion for some time. In a January 2024 interview with CNBC, Garlinghouse said that Ripple had explored non-U.S. markets for its initial public offering but eventually put its plans on hold.

Earlier, in 2022, Garlinghouse told CNBC that Ripple would explore a possible IPO following the conclusion of the SEC’s lawsuit against the company. That lawsuit has largely concluded with partial victories for both sides.

Though Ripple has paused its IPO plans, other companies in the crypto industry have obtained listings on the stock market.

About two dozen Bitcoin mining firms are publicly traded, including the largest cap company in that category, Marathon (MARA). Coinbase (COIN), meanwhile, is one of the few crypto exchange companies on the stock market.

Other companies that partially work with crypto are also listed on the stock market, including PayPal (PYPL), Block Inc. (SQ), Microstrategy (MSTR), and Robinhood (HOOD). Each of those companies provides crypto-related services or holds crypto.

These stocks allows traders to invest in companies involved with the cryptocurrency sector. Though such stocks do not necessarily closely match crypto prices, stocks that do move in line with prices or outperform the market may be an appealing alternative to direct crypto investment for some traders.