Ripple CEO Slams ‘Too Harsh’ SEC, Gensler Says ‘Political Liability’

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse criticized Wall Street's biggest regulator, calling the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) “very hostile” in an interview on Tuesday.

The fintech boss spoke to CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos he said. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said that it is a “political liability” and that the way to regulate the crypto industry is not working.

Ripple was behind it XRPSixth largest digital asset by market capitalization, locks horns with SEC after regulator in 2020 hit With a charge of 1.3 billion dollars for selling unregistered securities in the form of XRP.

“One of the definitions of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” Garlinghouse told CNBC. “I think Gary Gensler is doing the same thing over and over again, and somehow he thinks he's going to win in court. He continues to lose in court.

After a judge, Ripple scored a victory in the courts against the SEC last July Purchased Programmatic sales of XRP to retail investors do not qualify as securities.

While the judge ruled that the $728 million contracts for institutional sales were unregistered securities sales, the partial ruling was interpreted by investors and Ripple as a positive for the crypto industry.

Garlinghouse added in an interview on Tuesday that going public with an initial public offering (IPO) in the US was not currently on the cards with the SEC's approach to crypto.

“Trying to go public with a very hostile regulator that has to approve your S-1 in the United States doesn't seem very interesting to me,” he said.

He added, “Why would we want to subject ourselves to an SEC that is clearly hostile to this industry?”

Edited by Andrew Hayward.