The chairman and CEO of Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings Inc., Yoshitaka Kitao, has made an extremely bullish prediction about the XRP price and Ripple Labs as a company. As is well-known, Kitao is one of Ripple’s biggest supporters and, remarkably, a former board member of the fintech (replaced by Adam Traidman).

In a Japanese speech in front of an audience, Kitao made several statements that are likely to make the XRP community sit up and take notice. According to Kitao, the ongoing legal battle between Ripple Labs and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the classification of XRP as an unregistered security could come to an end as early as the next few weeks.

Ripple About To Go Public?

In addition, the SBI Holdings CEO stated that he expects XRP prices to rise sharply if the court rules in Ripple’s favor. He sees this as an event that could increase not only the price of XRP, but also its overall acceptance in the digital finance world, saying (translated from Japanese):

If the conclusion is reached and XRP is a coin, I think it will be a very expensive price.

Even more surprising to the XRP community, however, may be Kitao’s statement that he expects Ripple Labs to go public (IPO) as soon as the ruling is handed down by Judge Analisa Torres of the United States Southern District Court of New York. Kitao said:

If the conclusion [of the trial] is positive, I think the management will immediately go public.

Such a move, according to Kitao, could lead to significant financial benefits for Ripple stakeholders such as SBI Holdings, regardless of whether they decide to sell their XRP holdings or keep them.

While the speculation of a Ripple IPO may come as a surprise to many, the rumors are not new. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said himself during an interview at the World Economic Summit 2020 on the subject of an IPO: “We won’t be the first, and we won’t be the last”.

At the time, the Californian fintech was not yet in litigation with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Remarkably, back in April 2021, during a presentation of SBI’s quarterly results, Kitao claimed that the SEC’s lawsuit was the last hurdle for Ripple before an IPO.

XRP Price Ahead Of A Breakout Due To Hinman Docs?

Already tomorrow, Tuesday June 13th, the XRP price could experience a major upswing. According to former federal prosecutor James K. Filan, the unsealing of internal SEC Hinman documents in the Ripple case could occur. The Hinman documents may shed light on Ethereum’s (ETH) previous classification as a non-security and mark a massive partial victory for Ripple.

At press time, XRP changed hands for $0.5169, up 2,4% in the last 24 hours. Currently, the most important resistance lies at $0.54. If this resistance is cleared by the XRP bulls, the yearly high of March 29 at $0.5850 could be within reach.

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Filed under: Bitcoin - @ June 12, 2023 5:25 pm