- Payment services believe that cryptocurrency will help make transactions easier for everyone, according to a recent survey from Ripple
- Companies that support crypto believe that regulatory clarity is the biggest barrier from allowing mass adoption
- The United States, United Kingdom and China have been experimenting on blockchain and its uses since the beginning of 2023.
The survey conducted by Ripple and the Faster Payments Council (FPC) provided insights on global crypto payment trends based on a survey sent to over 950 FPC subscribers, including analysts and CEOs across 45 countries. 90% of respondents considered regulatory clarity the foremost hurdle to crypto payments, while 45% cited limited industry acceptance.
According to the report, more than half of surveyed payment executives believe that most merchants will accept crypto payments within 1-3 years – 27% of respondents from the Middle East and Africa think this will happen even sooner by 2024.
The demand for digital assets was also confirmed by other surveys, such as one from Zogby Analytics and CasperLabs, which revealed 90% of enterprises in the U.S., U.K., and China have been experimenting with blockchain tech since early 2023. Pymnts and BitPay have also found that businesses with an annual income of $1 billion are increasingly adopting cryptocurrency payments due to customer demand.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse remains optimistic that the XRP lawsuit with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission will be resolved this year. This survey further demonstrates that cryptocurrency and blockchain branches have a significant potential to become an essential part of the global financial system in times ahead.
SEC Still Targeting Ripple
Despite the growing popularity and potential of crypto payments worldwide, cryptocurrency token issuer Ripple still faces Regulatory repercussions from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC has been targeting the firm since early 2020 with allegations that the XRP digital asset is an unregistered security. According to the commission, selling XRP tokens in an unlicensed manner violates federal securities laws and led to a lawsuit against Ripple for illegally profiting by selling $1.3 billion worth of XRP tokens to retail investors.
The case is pending in court, with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse expecting a resolution this year. Despite Ripple’s insistence that XRP is not a security, SEC Director of Corporate Finance William Hinman stated that his agency believes it meets the definition of security under U.S. law. In February 2021, a federal magistrate judge also cited similarities between Ethereum and XRP related to their economic nature and concluded that, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, XRP also had investment characteristics for buyers who sought profits based on its value changes.
In addition, numerous exchanges such as Coinbase have voluntarily delisted XRP from their platforms, citing “regulatory uncertainty” as the primary reason, while other companies such as MoneyGram have paused their partnerships with Ripple due to these charges; this further indicates how seriously regulators are taking these allegations against Ripple.
Nevertheless, many remain confident in Ripple’s ability to weather these stormy waters; despite adverse rulings by courts earlier this year, market prices stayed relatively stable as investors continue to hope for regulatory clarity soon concerning cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which are not classed as securities either by U.S. or international regulators.
