Ripple CEO Garlinghouse Fires Back at Former SEC Chair

In a recent post on the X social media platform, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said that he was in a state of "disbelief" after hearing some comments that were recently made by former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Jay Clayton about the state of cryptocurrency regulation.

It seems that Garlinghouse views Clayton's comments as hypocritical considering that the latter initiated the infamous lawsuit against Ripple.

Clayton's progressive crypto stance

During a conversation at an event organized by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), an independent nonpartisan think tank, Clayton voiced his open-minded attitude to cryptocurrency entrepreneurs and regulation.

"I'm very sympathetic, very sympathetic to the entrepreneurs who wanted to reach out to the public to raise capital."

Clayton adds that regulators should be looking at ways that would make it easier to raise capital for "smaller and medium-sized" companies.

The former SEC boss believes that the appropriate way to regulate cryptocurrencies is to recognize that it is "a technology, not a product."

He believes that it is a different technology that is delivering the product that we already know in a more efficient way.

"I think that the classification issues about whether a product is a security or a commodity are overblown. I think most of those decisions are pretty easy."

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Ripple's win against SEC

Clayton is primarily known for taking Ripple to court over allegedly illicit XRP sales during the last days of his term in late 2020.

Ripple eventually emerged victorious in the case. In July, U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres ruled that secondary sales of the controversial token did not constitute a sale of investment contracts.

The SEC has also moved to drop its charges against Garlinghouse and Ripple founder Chris Larsen.

In November, Garlinghouse stated that he was ready to take the fight to the Supreme Court if it comes down to this.