Brad Garlinghouse Discusses Current State of Ripple-SEC Lawsuit, His Bullishness on Crypto, Use of XRP for Payments

Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of the US-based cross border payment firm Ripple, has recently discussed the reason XRP is being used for payments by the company, why he’s incredibly bullish on crypto, and the current state of the lawsuit between Ripple and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Garlinghouse made these comments during an interview with CNBC when he was in France for Paris Blockchain Week Summit (PBWS).

Read Also: Anti-Corruption Watchdog: There Is Evidence to Prove That SEC Official Had Conflict of Interest in Ripple Lawsuit

Brad Garlinhouse noted:

“Ripple uses the XRP token in our tech stack. We use it to enable that cross-border extremely fast and extremely reliable transactions. We use XRP because of its attributes that make it fast and inexpensive. There are other tokens that people use for other use cases that don’t work as well for payments.

“The XRP ledger, from its origins, has really enabled payments at scale… Bitcoin, while it’s very good for digital gold, its speed and cost per transaction make it less attractive for a payment type use case. So, Ripple continues [to use] XRP because [of] its core attributes as a really efficient technology…

“And I think you’ll see Ripple use the XRP ledger for other use cases as well. We’re certainly making investments, as I mentioned in the carbon credit marketplace, and other verticals that we think could be compelling.”

In the course of the interview, Garlinghouse said it’s nearly impossible to know the timing, but he’s incredibly bullish on crypto generally:

“I guess it’s really hard to know the timing, but I’m incredibly bullish on crypto overall, and frankly that’s because the macro factors, and there’s two that I’ll highlight…

“The macro factor on inflation globally… You saw in this past week record inflation in four decades inflation… Inflation in the United States at 8.5%.

“The other factor, as you and I have talked about the move from crypto overall towards an institutional use case, solving real problems for real customers, and these scaled solutions that aren’t just about speculative activity that has really driven some of the historic crypto market activity.”

Read Also: Ripple-SEC Lawsuit: SEC Is Deploying another Delay Tactic with the Latest Request Filed

Speaking about the ongoing lawsuit between Ripple and the SEC, he said it’s certain that there is no regulatory clarity for digital assets in the United States, contrary to the claims of the regulatory agency:

“The core question there is around a nuanced legal question: is XRP a security and did Ripple sell XRP as an investment contract? Did Ripple sell unregistered securities? Did I, Brad Garlinghouse, sell XRP as an unregistered security?

“I think it’s very clear that in the United States, the laws have not been clear, and for the SEC then to go back in time and say you should have known all along, it’s a hard case. I think what we’re seeing in the court process, which does continue to play out, is a judicial process that recognizes some of this.

“Even, this past couple days, a ruling from the court finally requiring the SEC to publish information about some speeches that the Director of Corporate Finance Hinman gave about Ether not being a security. And the fact that even now you have the SEC not able to answer the question is Ether a security. They won’t answer that question.

“They’re saying there’s clarity, but then they won’t provide clarity. They’re saying they won’t comment on specific projects, but they comment on Bitcoin. Bitcoin is one of the largest projects, but yet still just a project.”

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