Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, has criticized the crypto “pro-innovation” stance of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its recent lawsuits against significant exchanges like Coinbase and Binance. Garlinghouse stated that the SEC was “throwing lawsuits at the wall” to distract attention from the debacle of bankrupted exchange FTX.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse Blasts SEC’s ‘Pro Innovation’ Stance
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, the company behind the xrp cryptocurrency asset and a series of payment and settlement protocols, has criticized the recent legal actions of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Coinbase and Binance US, two major cryptocurrency exchanges.
Garlinghouse stated that the stance of the SEC and its chairman were wrong and could stifle innovation in the cryptocurrency industry in the U.S.
Garlinghouse explained:
If it wasn’t already clear, it should be now – Chair Gensler’s laughable ‘pro-innovation’ stance (as he said today), is exactly the opposite.
Garlinghouse refers to the statements given by Gensler to CNBC on Tuesday, where he talked about the non-compliance of U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchanges with securities laws. In the interview, Gensler declared that the set of actions the SEC was taking was “pro-innovation because, without trust, the capital markets really don’t work.”
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis have also discussed how these policies might affect the future of the industry in the country, causing innovation to take flight to other countries.
SEC’s Lawsuit Barrage Considered a Distraction
Garlinghouse believes these recent actions seek to move the attention away from other developments in the crypto industry. He explained:
What this also tells me is that the SEC is throwing lawsuits at the wall and hoping they distract from the agency’s FTX debacle.
While the SEC charged Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX, for allegedly orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors, the agency did not include the company in the lawsuit. Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao mentioned this recently on social media.
Garlinghouse challenged the SEC’s jurisdiction in these matters, declaring it was “embarrassing to watch an unelected bureaucrat flail like this to mask the fact that he and his agency don’t have the power that he so desperately craves.”
Ripple is in a legal battle against the SEC that started in December 2020, when it charged the company and Garlinghouse with conducting a $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering.
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