Ripple CEO confirms, ‘Linqto owns 4.7M shares’ – But denies any direct sale

•  Ripple CEO denied direct engagement with Linqto but confirmed the firm holds 4.7M Ripple private shares. 
• About 5k Ripple shareholders are reportedly non-accredited investors.

Ripple [XRP] has found itself in another legal crossfire between Linqto, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Department of Justice (DoJ). 

According to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report, Linqto platform allegedly flouted securities law. The platform allowed retail investors to buy private shares in big start-ups before they go public (IPO). 

Ripple CEO clarifies Linqto relations

Per the report, Linqto bought Ripple’s private shares from the secondary market and sold them to non-accredited investors. In fact, it allegedly sold even to investors from sanctioned countries at higher values. 

Additionally, the report claimed that some investors weren’t fully informed that they were not directly owning the said private shares of Ripple or other firms. 

In reality, they owned ‘units’ or shares of a Specialized Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that had the direct ownership of the shares. 

About 5,000 of SPV Ripple investors are reportedly non-accredited, a situation former lawmaker John Deaton termed a ‘regulatory nightmare.’

Clarifying Ripple’s stance on the matter, the CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, distanced the company from Linqto and said, 

“What we know from our records is Linqto owns 4.7M shares of Ripple, solely purchased on the secondary market from other Ripple shareholders (never directly from Ripple).”

Garlinghouse added that the 4.7 million shares of Ripple owned by Linqto from early shareholders had appreciated considerably.

However, the firm was blocked from Ripple shares’ secondary markets in 2024 for ‘growing skepticism.’

For perspective, the XRP token is different from Ripple shares. On a year-on-year basis, the Ripple private share has surged 320% and now trades at $91, per Hiive data. 

Meanwhile, according to John Deaton, other firms like Circle, Kraken, Anthropic AI, and SpaceX had shares on the platform, too. He assured the safety of the Ripple shares and added, 

“The other great news is that all the shares of companies people invested in (Circle, Ripple, Uphold, Kraken, SpaceX, etc) are present and accounted for. The only caveat to that is that 3% of the shares of Ripple that should be there were sold without people’s knowledge – but the funds related to that sale are there.”

Amid the panic amongst investors, Deaton stated that they will come first during bankruptcy repayments.

It remains to be seen how the case will evolve and whether the affected investors will be made whole again.