Nik Bougalis, Ripple Lab’s director of engineering, announced in a shock tweet last Saturday he had left the firm. In a 22 October tweet, he said his 10-year career with Ripple would end “in a few weeks.”
“All good things…”
My decade-long journey at @Ripple has been a fantastic (if exhausting and all-consuming) one.
I got to work on a project that I love, towards a goal I believe in.
But that journey will be coming to an end in a few weeks.
🧵
— 𝙽 𝙸 𝙺 𝙱 (@nbougalis) October 21, 2022
He wrote at the time his 10-year career at Ripple had been “fantastic,” adding he would not join another blockchain, non-fungible token (NFT), or decentralised finance (DeFi) project.
I got to work on a project that I love, towards a goal I believe in. But that journey will be coming to an end in a few weeks. As for what’s next? I’ll talk about it when it’s time, but I am NOT joining another blockchain project/company, nor am I doing NFTs or DeFi”
The veteran software engineer and cryptographer developed the XRP Ledger (XRPL), an open-source project. He additionally managed the XLS-20 amendment, which added NFTs to XRPL set for launch in November.
Continuing, he stated Ripple’s operations would “be just fine” due to its team of “passionate individuals” contributing to the platform.
Ripple SEC Complaint
The news comes amid an ongoing lawsuit with the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), which saw last week’s inflows of XRP-based products increase with positive inflows of $800,000.
One of the biggest court cases involving a cryptocurrency, the SEC complaint accused Ripple’s XRP of operating as a security, leading over 3,000 XRP supporters to challenge the accusation in courts.
The official filing in December 2020 accused Ripple Labs and “two of its executives” with “significant” security holdings of raising $1.3 billion USD “through an unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering, citing company co-founder and executive chairman Christian Larsen.
The complaint also accuses company chief executive Bradley Garlinghouse of involvement in the alleged incident, which began in 2013 following investments across the United States and other global markets.
Stephanie Avakian, Direct of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, said in a statement,
“Issuers seeking the benefits of a public offering, including access to retail investors, broad distribution and a secondary trading market, must comply with the federal securities laws that require registration of offerings unless an exemption from registration applies. We allege that Ripple, Larsen, and Garlinghouse failed to register their ongoing offer and sale of billions of XRP to retail investors, which deprived potential purchasers of adequate disclosures about XRP and Ripple’s business and other important long-standing protections that are fundamental to our robust public market system.”
Marc P Berger, SEC Enforcement Division Deputy Director, concluded the registration requirements were “designed to ensure that potential investors […] receive important information about an issuer’s business operations and financial condition,” accusing Ripple of ‘failing’ over the years to satisfy the provisions.
