Rachel Lee, a vocal XRP supporter, recently questioned whether Ripple’s head of government and regulatory relations (APAC and Middle East) Sagar Sarbhai’s recent claim that xRapid would be “launched soon” is just a “pump and dump collaboration.”

Lee noted that “everyone is expecting xRapid to go live” at Ripple company’s annual SWELL conference to be held in San Francisco on October 1-2, 2018. As covered on CryptoGlobe, the Ripple company appears to have made large investments in its aggressive marketing campaign as former US president Bill Clinton will reportedly be a keynote speaker at the American fintech firm’s upcoming SWELL conference.

In order to get a better idea about what people actually think, Lee asked her followers (via Twitter) if they believe Sarbhai’s questionable announcement about xRapid’s expected launch “within the next month” is a “collaboration to pump the market.”

Can’t “Go Live” Without Regulations

She argued that since xRapid will utilize the XRP token, it would not be able to “go live” without regulations. Responding to the Twitter survey, 50% of her followers said regulations will be required, or are compulsory, before Ripple Labs can actually launch xRapid.

Significantly, 39% of respondents said regulations were not necessary for xRapid to go live – indicating the limited level of understanding about digital asset regulatory policies in the largely speculative crypto community.

While allegations of insider trading and people getting together to orchestrate pump-and-dump schemes have become quite common in the crypto space, only 11% of Lee’s survey respondents thought that the xRapid announcement was a “CNBC market pump and dump.”

As covered on CryptoGlobe, blockchain startup R3 and Ripple Labs, Inc. resolved their long-running legal dispute in which both parties had sued each other for a “breach of agreement.”

Carefully Assessing Product Launch

Although both parties chose to keep the terms of their agreement confidential, the dispute involved Ripple company issued XRP tokens. Last year, R3 had alleged that Ripple did not honor a contract requiring it to sell 5 billion XRP tokens to the blockchain development firm.

R3’s complaint and lawsuit originated from the fact that the XRP price increased over 3,000 percent last year. If Ripple had followed through with its commitment, R3 would have been able to purchase XRP tokens worth $1.2 billion for only $42.5 million.

Given the costly nature of lawsuits, Ripple may need to carefully evaluate its decision to launch xRapid as its use is tied to the XRP token – which many consider to be a security. Obtaining regulatory approval in the appropriate jurisdictions prior to launching xRapid could possibly delay its introduction into the markets, however, it appears to be a better long-term course of action.