Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse shared in a January 3 Twitter thread that he is “cautiously optimistic” that the United States will achieve “progressive” regulatory clarity for the cryptocurrency industry in 2023.
To mark the first day of the 118th Congress, Garlinghouse shared his hopes for 2023 as the year the US gets regulatory clarity on crypto and there is further support for “bipartisan and bicameral” regulation.
Today is the first day of the 118th Congress. While previous efforts at regulatory clarity for crypto in the US have stalled, I’m cautiously optimistic that 2023 will be the year we (finally!) see progress. A thread on why…
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) January 3, 2023
Garlinghouse said the US was not starting with a “blank slate” for regulation, citing bills such as the Securities Transparency Act, the Responsible Financial Innovation Act (RFIA) and the Digital Tokens Transparency Act as examples.
According to Ripple’s CEO, “the stakes couldn’t be higher.” He said “there is no perfect bill and there probably won’t be one that will satisfy everyone” and efforts to pursue a perfect bill should not hinder Congress’s progress in creating encryption regulations and legislation.
Garlinghouse opined that the United States is behind Singapore, the European Union (EU), Brazil, and Japan when it comes to crypto legislation and regulations.
He claimed that the lack of a coordinated effort to implement a regulatory framework around the world and in the United States “continues to push business to countries. [with] lower regulatory bars” that lead to “sometimes disastrous results,” citing the Bahamian-headquartered FTX as an example.
Related: SEC seeks to keep Hinman documents hidden in Ripple case
Ripple is a financial technology company that operates the RippleNet global payment network along with its cryptocurrency XRP (XRP).
In December 2020, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple alleging that the company sold XRP as an unregistered security.
The SEC argued that Ripple raised billions through sales of XRP and failed to register the offerings as securities as required by law. Ripple denied the allegations claiming that XRP is a currency, not a security.
In October 2022, Garlinghouse told panels at the DC Fintech Week conference that he expected the case against the firm to be concluded in the first half of 2023 but admitted it was difficult to predict.
The case is still ongoing and there is no clear indication of when it will end.
