Ripple provides digital asset infrastructure to financial institutions, including solutions developed to solve problems with traditional international remittances. Currently, Ripple is focusing on various developments using the XRP Ledger (XRPL), and in particular, its full-scale entry into the custody and stablecoin fields is attracting attention both inside and outside the industry.
Ripple has been fighting the SEC*1 in court for many years, but it is about to come to an end. How do you see the past few years of fighting the SEC?
David Schwartz (hereinafter David): It's been a few years since we had our worst Christmas. Although it's not perfect, we are quite satisfied with the progress of the lawsuit. On the day the lawsuit was filed, many of our employees were in the United States, and everyone was worried about what the future held.
I still remember that day as the worst. Because the US market is important to us, the US government tried to destroy what we had built. That's why we have been fighting for appropriate regulation, explaining to regulators that they are "trying to take innovation opportunities overseas."
At the same time, this lawsuit has been a trigger for us to shift our focus outside the United States. We are looking for a more innovative and open environment, and are moving a lot of our business outside the United States, where we can focus on development both in terms of payments and the technical aspects of blockchain.
As a region where Ripple is focusing, Southeast Asia seems to be particularly prominent.
David: Southeast Asia is a rapidly growing market and is about to play an important role in the global economy. In addition, many developers are in Southeast Asia and we feel the demand in the market, so we position it as an important region like Japan.