Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says the ongoing lawsuit involving XRP is a threat to the innovation being generated by cryptocurrency.
Last week, during an interview with Fox Business, the Ripple CEO talked about the lawsuit brought against his firm last December by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
He said:
“It’s so important for the industry to have clarity. Innovation here in the United States in some ways is on trial. We want innovation here in the US around crypto, around blockchain, to thrive. And without that clarity, innovation goes to markets where there is clarity.
“One of the ironies is, the United States is the only country on the planet that has viewed XRP as a security. Whether it’s Japan, the UK, Switzerland, Singapore – they all view XRP as a currency. Yet here at home, where Ripple is headquartered, the US SEC has taken a different position.“
Garlinghouse also expressed his frustration over the SEC’s claim that Ripple should have known all along that XRP is a security.
“You have other parts of the US government saying that XRP is a currency. Whether it be the Department of Justice, whether it be the US Treasury, has called XRP a currency. So for the SEC eight or nine years after XRP started trading, over a trillion dollars has traded out there, for them to say, ‘we now think it’s a security…’ You should have known that all along. That seems pretty hard to swallow.“ He added