Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse Expresses Displeasure Over SEC’s Continued Litigation
On Saturday (October 15), Ripple Inc. CEO Brad Garlinghouse, expressed his feelings about the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ongoing lawsuit against his firm. In a tweet, he revealed his displeasure with the agency’s continued litigation against Ripple.
Is the SEC Motivated by Power or adherence to Law?
Brad Garlinghouse said in his tweet that the SEC had shown no consideration for the businesses or people that their case against the XRP coin would hurt. He asserts that the Gary Gensler-led commission’s pursuit of a policy goal is motivated by power rather than a true commitment to the law. In his words, the policy objective is not about “a faithful allegiance to the law. (Instead) It’s about power.”
Brad also stated that the SEC would face no consequences for the lawsuit. The commission “has clearly forgotten that the government works for the people,” he continued, adding “we all should be outraged.”
Garlinghouse made the statement in response to a tweet from a user who commented that the Ripple CEO was increasingly using profanity in his discussions about the SEC’s lawsuit. While responding, Brad stated that his outrage has been growing as the litigation proceeds.
No One Outside the US Cares
Brad’s trending statements came close on the heels of a widely circulated online video, where he pointed out that no one outside America cares about the lawsuit. According to him, every other country where Ripple is doing business already has an established principle on digital assets and that“most people outside the United States don’t really care that the SEC is suing us.”
Brad said this while giving a talk on 11 October 2022 at DC FinTech Week 2022. Speaking on the topic “Enterprise Crypto and the Regulatory Perimeter,” the Ripple CEO said that he expected the U.S. SEC’s ongoing lawsuit against his firm to close in H1 2023.
Ripple Set to Go All Out in Its Defence Against SEC
In retrospect, Ripple Labs’ suit with the SEC started on 22 December 2020, when the SEC announced that it had “filed an action against Ripple Labs Inc. and two of its executives, who are also significant security holders, alleging that they raised over $1.3 billion through an unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering XRP.”
However, Ripple, on its part, maintained that the XRP was traded on “well over 200 exchanges around the world” and “99% of all XRP trading had nothing to do with Ripple the company.”
While addressing the misconception that Ripple runs a lot of the infrastructure that powers the XRP Ledger, Brad said;
“Let’s try to start with facts. So today, of the 155 validators on the XRP Ledger, Ripple runs like six out of 155 or something. There’s been amendments passed on XRP Ledger that Ripple the company opposed. It’s traditional open source software. We can’t control it.”
According to Brad, Ripple is ready to spend even over $100 million to defend itself against the SEC. He says this is important for Ripple and the crypto industry as a whole.
