Ripple CEO takes crypto regulatory clarity fight to Washington
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the company was engaging with elected officials about crypto regulatry issues.
Ripple (XRP) CEO Brad Garlinghouse met with unnamed members of the U.S. Congress on Sept. 19 to discuss issues about regulatory clarity of the crypto industry.
In a Sept. 19 post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Garlinghouse revealed that he was in ย Washington, D.C., alongside other top executives of the crypto company, including Stuart Alderoty, to engage with the lawmakers.
“Back in D.C. today to meet with members of Congress,” Garlinghouse said. “Canโt get regulatory clarity without actually engaging with the elected officials who are proposing bills!”
Garlinghouse did not provide names of the lawmakers they met or additional details of their discussions.
Meanwhile,
Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty via an X post also confirmed a visit to the U.S. Supreme Court. According to him, while waiting for regulatory clarity, checks and balances should not be abandoned.
“While the industry waits for legislative clarity from Congress, we should always be able to count on checks and balances.”
Visits SEC office
In a separate post, Garlinghouse posted a picture of himself and Aldeorty at the front of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Garlinghouse’s post stated that the Ripple executives did not meet SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. However, it is unclear if they met with any other official from the Commission.
Meanwhile, the now-viral post has amassed more than 10,000 likes and has been viewed over 755,000 times on the X platform within the last 13 hours.
US regulatory effort
Garlinghouse’s presence in D.C. followed the firm’s partial victory against the SEC in July when Judge Analisa Torres ruled that Rippleโs sale of XRP to the general public and its token distributions do not constitute an offer and sale of an investment contract. The financial regulator has moved for an interlocutory appeal of the crypto firm’s victory.
Meanwhile, the U.S. regulatory environment for the emerging industry remains largely hazy. Financial regulators, the SEC, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have brought several enforcement actions against major crypto companies like Binanceย andย Coinbase.
Additionally, several U.S. lawmakers are working on different legislations designed to provide regulatory clarity for the digital assets space. Recently, Senator Elizabeth Warren’s bipartisan cryptocurrency anti-money laundering bill gained backing from other lawmakers.