Ripple Labs has decided to launch a new product known as Liquidity Hub, even though the company is amidst a lawsuit that was brought against it by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over XRP. This new product is advertised as a one-stop solution for enterprises that wish to source a tokenized asset. The company said that customers will be able to use the product for seamlessly accessing crypto assets from a multitude of global venues, which include exchanges, market makers and OTC desks as well as decentralized venues in the future. The announcement for the Liquidity Hub was made by the company on Tuesday.
The general manager at Ripple, Asheesh Birla explained that enterprises would be able to take advantage of this new product for tokenized assets. The expected launch date of this new product will be some time next year. Ripple also explained that this product will also provide support for smart order routing and turnkey integration for sourcing crypto assets at optimized prices. This would enable customers the opportunity to hold, buy and sell crypto assets easily. The company also added that initially the product will offer support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash and XRP.
However, it was also stated that availability would also depend on the geography. It said that they would expand to include other tokenized assets in the future. Moreover, the company elaborated that they were also planning on introducing additional features in the future, which would include yield generating functionalities and support for staking. It was also mentioned in the announcement that this Liquidity Hub has already been in use of the company for at least two years. The company said that they had been using it internally for managing its internal liquidity, as required by its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) product that powers millions of transactions valued at billions of dollars.
Coinme is the company’s first partner to use the Liquidity Hub product. This is a crypto-to-cash network and Ripple said that it will initially use the underlying technology platform of the new product and has plans of unlocking further functionality when the Liquidity Hub becomes available. It is interesting to note that Ripple is not willing to back down, even though it is embroiled in a legal battle with the SEC over XRP. The legal battle between the US regulator and the company is ongoing.
Ripple Labs was sued by the US securities regulator, along with the company’s chief executive Brad Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen, the company’s co-founder. They have been accused for allegedly raising funds valued at $1.3 billion through XRP. It is considered an unregistered security offering by the commission. Obviously, the company and its executives have taken up the fight because they argue that XRP cannot be classified as a security and is actually a cryptocurrency. There has been a lot of debate about the topic in the US, as regulators have classified a number of cryptocurrencies as securities and have taken legal action against companies dealing with them accordingly.