During a recent appearance at the 2024 Financial Markets Quality (FMQ) Conference, Stuart Alderoty, chief legal officer at Ripple, noted that cross-border payments have always been the company's core product. Now, however, Ripple is also heavily betting on custody and the stablecoin sector. "We are going all-in on all three pillars," he stressed. 

The company is also interested in the tokenization of real-world assets, which has emerged as a new trend. 

As soon as the regulatory cloud is lifted, Alderoty expects Ripple to become the number one source for enterprise crypto solutions in the U.S. 

"Ripple has always been a compliance-first company. We've been around for 12 years," he stressed. He has also mentioned Grayscale and Coinbase while naming the crypto companies that are "not going away." 

Lagging behind 

The Ripple executive does not think that the SEC has established itself as the leading regulatory voice around the globe. "I met with regulators in Singapore and the UK, and Brazil, and Dubai, and the SEC is not mentioned," he added. 

Alderoty has recalled how the SEC was recently called out by the judge for not faithfully applying the law. The question is why the commissioners still have their jobs, according to the top Ripple lawyer. 

"The rest of the world has moved on, they've recognized the value of the technology, the jobs, the tax dollars, the innovation that it can bring to the economy. 

The lawyer has noted that other regulators are focused on balancing innovation with investor protection. "They've moved so past the US, so past the SEC…I don't know if we can ever catch up at this point," he added.

Alderoty has stressed that crypto is not a flash in the pan, adding that it is not made up of criminals and bad actors. He also believes that crypto and the US dollar can live in harmony.