. “Striving for Clarity: Brad Garlinghouse’s Reaction”

Ripple CEO Warns Crypto Sector of More Battles Ahead

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has cautioned that as the court case between Ripple and the U.S. financial regulator draws to a close, it is just the start of the fight for many others in the crypto sector, stressing that the struggle for clarity “must go on.”

After a long debate between Ripple and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Hinman documents were revealed on June 13.

Garlinghouse has long advocated for the disclosure of papers related to the 2018 address by Hinman which declared that Ethereum (ETH) is not a security. He believes that these documents could support his argument that Ripple’s token, XRP (XRP), is also not a security.

SEC’s Disclosure of Hinman Documents Demonstrates Politics Over People

In a video posted to Twitter on June 17, Garlinghouse declared that the SEC’s disclosure of the Hinman documents demonstrated that they “deliberately caused uncertainty about the regulations and employed this uncertainty via enforcement.”

He contended that the SEC’s behavior exemplifies the “concept of prioritizing politics over people […] and the pursuit of power rather than sensible policy.”

Garlinghouse declared that the SEC had acted in “bad faith, straightforward and simple,” and re-emphasized that the filing of the lawsuit in December 2020, just days before Christmas, was a “very Grinch-like move”.

Ripple has welcomed the MiCA regulation as the US lawsuit has highlighted the uncertainty surrounding it.

He stated that in all his conversations with the SEC before the lawsuit was submitted, he responded to “every query [the SEC] posed” and “not once did they imply that XRP was a security.”

Garlinghouse contended that the Hinman address did not focus on “any particular token or blockchain,” but rather on the “persistent” enforcement action taken by the SEC.

Garlinghouse went on to clarify that “at best” the documents demonstrate that high-level personnel at the SEC “were unable to come to a consensus” and told Bill Hinman directly that “he would only further muddle the regulations for crypto.”

Cointelegraph reported on June 13 that the editors expressed worries that, due to Hinman’s statement that Ether is not a security, it could be “challenging” for the agency to take a different stance on Ether in the future.

Garlinghouse went on to state that, at the very least, the documents demonstrated that Hinman had neglected to follow the law, and had attempted to make new laws, stressing that only Congress has the authority to do so.

Gary Gensler’s position in jeopardy, BlackRock’s initial Bitcoin ETF and other updates: Hodler’s Digest, June 11th-17th.