Ripple CEO Says US ‘Getting Passed’ in Crypto Policies

The United States is being passed by other countries in terms of policies that promote innovation.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said during a fireside chat with CNBC this Monday (May 8) at the Dubai Fintech Summit.

Garlinghouse added that by the time a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit filed against Ripple in December 2020 is resolved, Ripple will have spent $200 million defending itself.

“I find it — as a company that started in the United States, as someone who is a U.S. citizen — it’s sad, like I have sadness about this,” Garlinghouse said in a video clip of the fireside chat posted by CNBC. “The U.S. is getting passed, not just a little bit, but by a lot.”

While the UAE has the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) and the European Union has the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA), the U.S. has put “politics ahead of policy,” Garlinghouse said.

“Blockchain technologies are being invested and pursued and the entrepreneurship outside the United States,” Garlinghouse said in the video clip. “One of the first pieces of advice I give entrepreneurs when they come and ask me, getting something started, I’ll say, ‘If I were you, I would not start in the United States,’ and I think there’s a lot of U.S.-based companies and even U.S. public companies that would agree with that.”

The SEC filed its action against Ripple for allegedly conducting a $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering after a debate over whether XRP — a cryptocurrency connected to Ripple — is a security and should be registered with the agency.

Ripple had said in the past that XRP is a currency, which means it isn’t subject to the SEC’s rules.

Garlinghouse said at the time that the SEC’s lawsuit is “an attack on the entire crypto industry and American innovation.”

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced Tuesday (May 2) that it has launched Coinbase International Exchange as it contends with rising tensions with regulators in the U.S.

“As more and more markets are moving forward with regulatory frameworks to become crypto hubs, we believe the moment is right to launch this international exchange,” Coinbase said when announcing the launch.

Coinbase received a Wells notice from the SEC in March tied to the company’s listing of potential unregistered securities across its suite of digital asset products and services. Wells notices are not formal charges or lawsuits but can often lead to them.