For the longest time, the crypto market has existed independent of traditional financial structures. Indeed, banks have shunned users of Bitcoin, citing the potential illegality of transactions using BTC, and some of the world’s most powerful individuals have shunned digital assets as a whole.
But, one leading industry executive believes that cryptocurrency firms and organizations based around similar technologies will soon go live on public markets. The industry executive is the chief executive of Ripple Labs, Brad Garlinghouse.
Ripple to Trade on Public Markets?
Alongside other cryptocurrency industry executives, Garlinghouse descended on Davos in Switzerland this week to talk about blockchain and similar technologies with some of the world’s most powerful people.
During a Wall Street Journal event, the leading Ripple executive said that he believes in the next 12 months, “you’ll see initial public offerings in the crypto/blockchain space.”
Garlinghouse, touching on the long-held sentiment that Ripple will eventually issue shares on the public market, said that “We’re not going to be the first and we’re not going to be the last, but I expect us to be on the leading side… it’s a natural evolution for our company.”
“In the next 12 months, you’ll see IPOs in the crypto/blockchain space. We’re not going to be the first and we’re not going to be the last, but I expect us to be on the leading side… it’s a natural evolution for our company.” –@bgarlinghouse at #WEF20
— Asheesh Birla (@ashgoblue) January 23, 2020
In other words, Garlinghouse thinks it is a “natural evolution” for his company to issue shares on public stock exchanges.
It isn’t clear what structure Ripple would take if it intends to IPO in the coming months, though there is clear investor demand, at least on the private equity and venture capital side, for the company’s equity.
Per previous reports from Ethereum World News, the company was late last year valued at $10 billion in the venture capital markets in a Series C funding round. This made it more valuable than WeWork.
Bitcoin Not a Viable Money?
This wasn’t the only strong assertion Garlinghouse made at the event.
Sticking to previous comments of his, Garlinghouse asserted that he is ” bullish on BTC as a store of value, but not for payments.”
As to why this is, Garlinghouse joked that “You don’t want to use BTC at Starbucks b/c by the time you get your coffee, it’ll be cold,” referencing the fact that most Bitcoin transactions take at least 10 to 20 minutes to become relatively immutable on the blockchain.
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