Ripple Labs director of engineering Nik Bougalis is leaving the company after nearly 10 years, becoming the latest active crypto executive to step down.
In an October 22 tweet, Bougalis noted that: “My decade-long journey at Ripple has been fantastic (albeit exhausting and absorbing). I’ve been able to work on a project I love, towards a goal I believe in. But that journey will come to an 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.
—     (@nbougalis) October 21, 2022
Interestingly, the Ripple developer noted that he will not be joining a blockchain project or company next.
“As for what’s next? I’ll talk about it when it’s time, but I’m NOT going to join another blockchain project/company, nor do I do NFT or DeFi,” said.
Bougalis has a long experience in software engineering and cryptography, and while he was at Ripple, mainly worked on open source projects for XRP Ledger payments, also known as XRPL.
One of the key recent Ripple developments that Bougalis has overseen is the XLS-20 amendment, which will see the introduction of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in XRPL. While there were some initial bugs that were supposed to be fixed, the update is planned for early November.
The cryptographer went on to say that Ripple will do just fine without him.
“His long-term health and success does not depend on any one person. I am sure he will do well, thanks to the talented and passionate people who contribute and participate, each in their own way.”
The blockchain space has seen a number of personalities walk away from their companies this month, with NFT marketplace OpenSea CFO Brian Roberts revealing on Oct. 7 that he was leaving the company.
On October 21, Polkadot co-founder, Gavin Wood also ended his time at blockchain infrastructure company Parity Technologies, stating that it was not a position in which he saw himself finding “absolute happiness”.
Other high-level executives who have followed the same path in recent months are FTX US President Brett Harrison, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, and former Genesis Trading CEO Michael Moro.
On a broader front, Ripple recently scored a major victory in its long legal battle with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). on alleged securities violations for the sale of XRP tokens (XRP).
On October 21, Ripple’s general counsel, Stuart Alderoty revealed that the company finally got its hands on important documents that could significantly strengthen its defense against the SEC.
The documents in question concern a 2018 speech by former SEC division director William Hinman related to the regulatory status of Ether ((ETH), which the government agency has fought long and hard to keep secret. during the legal dispute.
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