Ripple CEO Defends XRP Following Washington, DC’s Crypto Response
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has been closely monitoring the response from Washington, D.C. on crypto and he believes XRP is a solution. | Source: Christopher Michel/Flickr
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has taken the opportunity to plug XRP as a solution to the concerns raised by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Speaking on Twitter , Garlinghouse said that he hopes regulators recognize that not all cryptocurrencies are cut from the same cloth in terms of their potential to facilitate crime and money laundering.
The comments are no doubt intended to remind both investors and regulators that unlike bitcoin, XRP does not purport to create a parallel financial system and is fully open to being regulated.
“XRP Is Not Like the Others,” Says Garlinghouse
Garlinghouse revealed that he personally informed Mnuchin of his concern that crypto was being tarred with the same brush across the board. The Ripple chief maintains, however, that assets like XRP work alongside and not against the conventional banking system.
Garlinghouse stated that an examination of what Libra sets out to achieve justifies close examination and regulation as essentially a substitute for the U.S. dollar. XRP, on the other hand, is simply a cross-border payments tool already in use by financial institutions like MoneyGram to solve a “multi-trillion dollar problem” cheaply. An excerpt from his thread reads:
“I agree that crypto isn’t likely to replace fiat currencies – I have been very vocal that crypto isn’t likely to disrupt the U.S. dollar and other G20 currencies in my lifetime. But as Mnuchin indicated, the entire crypto industry should not be painted with one broad brush – it has come a long way since the days of Silk Road. For the industry to succeed, we need to work with regulators and within policies. Full stop.”
Ripple CEO Encourages Innovation
Ripple’s Garlinghouse said that in the interest of encouraging innovation in the United States, it is important that regulators examine crypto and work to integrate it into the financial system. If this does not happen, he suggested that regulators risk allowing foreign interests such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea to take control of an increasingly important sector of the global economy.
Steve Mnuchin Throws a Grenade into Bitcoin Arena
CCN.com reported yesterday that the Treasury Secretary’s press conference appeared to indicate a surprising amount of regulatory antipathy for bitcoin, with phrasing indicating that the government still sees cryptocurrency through the lens of a potential national security risk.
President Donald Trump recently dropped a bombshell tweet about bitcoin that seemed to catch much of the crypto community by surprise. Based on an assumed convergence with Trump’s political platform, Mnuchin’s comments potentially signify that the fight to mainstream cryptocurrency in the U.S. will continue for quite a while to come, barring something miraculous.
