The crypto industry has ‘already started’ to move outside the US, says CEO of Ripple

by · March 4, 2023

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulation through “enforcement”, as opposed to “doing the work”, is not a “healthy way” to regulate an industry and may make the US a less attractive place for crypto. innovation, suggests Ripple’s CEO.

In a March 3 Bloomberg interview, blockchain-based digital payments network Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse suggested that the SEC’s approach to regulation puts the United States at “serious risk” of not being a hub for the next evolution of blockchain and crypto innovation.

Garlinghouse noted that the regulator’s case against Ripple is that they are simply playing “insult” and “attacking” the industry as a whole, adding that if the SEC is “able to prevail,” there will be “a lot of other cases.”

He suggested that the crypto industry has “already begun to move outside” the United States, given that the crypto regulatory process is “behind” other countries such as “Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore and Switzerland.”

He praised those countries for taking the “time and thought” to create “clear driving rules”, adding that the approach taken by the US is not a “healthy way to regulate an industry”.

Garlinghouse said that when he “first came into the technology business in the late ’90s,” there were calls for the internet to be banned because of “illegal activity,” but the government said “no, we’re going to create a framework.”

He said to “look at the benefits” brought to the United States on a “geopolitical basis,” to have “Amazon’s and Google’s,” based in the United States

Garlinghouse believes crypto frameworks should start with “clear protections for consumers.”

He added that consumers are suffering from the “backlog”, saying they do not have the “same protection” that the US regulations can provide.

Garlinghouse believes that a decision should come this year regarding the SEC’s case against Ripple.

Related: Ripple survey: 97% of payment firms believe in the power of crypto

John Deaton, founder of the legal news agency Crypto Law Lawyer put out a call to his 245,000 Twitter followers on March 5 that all companies in “active litigation” with the SEC should work together and develop “coordinated strategies,” adding. that it is “war”.

This comes after Blockchain Association CEO Kristin Smith told Bloomberg in a Feb. 22 interview that the crypto regulatory process in the U.S. is happening “behind closed doors,” and it’s critical for more industry engagement in an “open process,” involving Congress.