Garlinghouse had this to say about the dispute with the SEC,
“Prior to the case, we had been advocating for more clarity around the rules and regulations. And the good news has been other countries around the world have leaned into that […]. The SEC, frankly, has just hired more litigation for what we call regulation through enforcement and really just started suing lots of people. What’s unfortunate is that they have lost consistently.”
Garlinghouse went on to discuss SEC cases against other crypto firms, saying,
“ From my point of view, the SEC has lost consistently. They lost the Grayscale case. I think, if you’re following the Coinbase case, the tone from the Judge is pretty skeptical about the SEC’s arguments. It stops, I think when the SEC either realizes they’re losing consistently or you have Congress lean in and write new legislation. That’s probably going to be hard in Election Year. Maybe we’ll see legislation around stablecoins this year, but I’m hopeful, and we’ll continue to advocate in Washington.”
XRP-Spot ETFs Remain Hotly Debated
Talking about the buzz surrounding the launch of an XRP-spot ETF, Garlinghouse said,
“I think we will see other ETFs. When we will see them is hard to predict. The sad reality of what we saw with the Bitcoin ETF is it was only because the courts forced the SEC’s hand, and really, Chair Gensler’s hand, that we saw that finally come to fruition. In my opinion, it makes these markets safer. It makes them more robust and so, this is good for the investment community to kind of lean into that.”
Asked whether Ripple is in talks with the largest issuers, particularly BlackRock (BLK) to get this done, Garlinghouse responded,
“I’m not going to comment on that, and I know BlackRock has said some things publicly. We think it makes sense for the XRP community overall.”
Ripple Targets Crypto Custody Space
Garlinghouse also responded to questions about the acquisition of Standard Custody, saying,
“We think there are some basic building blocks around crypto that are important to make crypto successful. Custody is an important part of that. For institutions to be able to custody their own as well as their customers’ digital assets, we think it is very important. We made two acquisitions over the last year in this space. One was a company in Switzerland and then more recently, Standard Custody.”
Crypto, Politics, and Senator Elizabeth Warren
Discussing crypto and politics, Garlinghouse highlighted CryptoLaw US founder John E Deaton running for Senate against Senator Elizabeth Warren.
According to media reports, Senator Warren is frantically trying to raise campaign funds to fend off Deaton. In an interview with Fox Business, Gasparino wondered why Senator Warren worries about John Deaton. Ousting Senator Warren would be a boon for the crypto space.
Senator Warren is behind the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act. The bill aims to impose banking-style anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) frameworks for the digital asset space.
Significantly, Senator Warren used incorrect reports about terrorist groups adopting crypto to drive support for the bill.
