On Wednesday (May 25), Ripple CEO\u00a0Brad Garlinghouse shares his thoughts on a variety of interesting crypto-related topics while being interviewed by CNBC senior technology correspondent Arjun Kharpal\u00a0at this year\u2019s World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting\u00a0in Davos, Switzerland.<\/p>\n
Below, are highlights of Garlinghouse\u2019s comments during this interview.<\/p>\n
On 2017-2018 ICO Boom<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI think in some ways the ICO boom wasn\u2019t particularly great for crypto, but you know some good things probably came of that, just like stablecoins. I said somewhat controversially around that period that I thought 99% of crypto \u2014 at the time there were 2,000, not 19,000 \u2014 would probably go to zero and that didn\u2019t make me a lot of friends in the crypto world.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cSince then, I\u2019ve been very wrong, I guess, because now there\u2019s 19,000. So, we moved the other direction\u2026 It\u2019s not clear to me whether there\u2019s a place for all of these, but I also think as you go fromfirst-generation technologies to second-generation, you get more specific use cases for specific types of solutions.<\/em><\/p>\n On NFTs<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAnd look, I think we even have seen with what\u2019s going to NFT market. Yet, the gas fees associated with NFTs are in some cases astronomical. And are the underlying layer one technologies able to support NFTs in the kind of first generation? And I think we\u2019re finding probably not. And we need to find better technologies that can support NFTs because I don\u2019t think NFTs are going away by any stretch.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n On Crypto Regulation<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI certainly have said \u2014 and I think that the team at Ripple has said for years \u2014 the industry lacks clarity and lacks certainty. The overwhelming majority of people working in the crypto industry I think are good actors that want to do right by regulators, but when the rules of the road aren\u2019t clear, it\u2019s very difficult to manage within that. <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAnd so for entrepreneurs and investors to participate in these markets, to invest in companies in this space, you want that clarity and certainty. In the United States, we have been clamouring for that\u2026 I personally, was at the U.S. SEC office officefour or five times in the years leading up to their decision to file a lawsuit saying that XRP\u2026 [is] a security.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYou have other countries that demonstrate how out of step the United States is with the really the G20. I mean, we talk about Switzerland here, we talk about Singapore, we talk about the UK, Japan, even the UAE is way ahead in providing that clarity and certainty that I think allows investors and entrepreneurs to build on these technologies.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n https:\/\/youtube.com\/watch?v=lKVnus_BIjA%3Ffeature%3Doembed On Tuesday (May 24),\u00a0Maria Bartiromo, the anchor of\u00a0\u201cMornings with Maria\u201d\u00a0on American cable TV channel Fox Business Network (FBN), interviewed the Ripple CEO.<\/p>\n During this\u00a0interview, when Bartiromo asked Garlinghouse to share his thoughts on the crypto market, he replied:<\/p>\n \u201cWell, two quick thoughts on that. There\u2019s no question there\u2019s been a lot of turbulence to the crypto market. I think if you zoom out, though, over the last two years, you have to remember the Bitcoin was at about $8,000 two years ago, and today it\u2019s, as you just pointed out, around $30,000. So yes, in between there, it hit $60,000, but this is a new market.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s certainly been a lot of excitement about what\u2019s going on in the market, and then sometimes that excitement gets ahead of the reality. For Ripple, we\u2019ve been very focused on how do we use these technologies to solve real problems for customers. And those are the kind of solutions that I think will scale, regardless of what\u2019s happening to the turbulence and volatility of the market.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n She then asked Garlinghouse to comment on potential upcoming crypto regulation. He answered:<\/p>\n \u201cFirst, I\u2019ll say here in Davos, when I came four years ago, crypto was considered a bad word. Today, that is dramatically different. And frankly, our elected officials that are here in Davao are some of the people speaking most aggressively about that.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBut there\u2019s no question that regulation around crypto is still trying to find a solid footing, and finding the right posture for the United States. The United States has really been behind other G20 markets like the UK, like Switzerland, like Singapore. They\u2019ve really been leading in establishing a framework that works for both investors as well as entrepreneurs, who are taking advantage of these new technologies and building the next generations of Google and Facebook.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n Someone then asked Garlinhouse to comment on Tether and the assets that back $USDT. The Ripple CEO replied:<\/p>\n \u201cAs you point out, stablecoins have been in the news because that was one of the catalysts that really drove the market a couple weeks ago. An algorithmic stablecoin kind of melted down if you will. Tether is a considered a dollar-backed stablecoin. I\u2019m not personally involved with it. So, I don\u2019t know exactly how they are sharing those financials, but I think now more than ever the transparency that companies like Ripple have championed across the crypto industry are critical.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThat transparency for Tether, I think, is to really make sure the people participating, people buying, have access to whatever financial information they need to feel comfortable that ,in fact, it is dollar-backed\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI think the whole industry needs to be more transparent. I think that applies to Tether. I think that applies to the whole industry. From the earliest days, Ripple and the XRP community, we\u2019ve tried to lead by example. We\u2019ve really tried to be the adults in the crypto room.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAnd it\u2019s the reason why I\u2019ve come here to Davos and met with finance ministers from around the world, CEOs of banks around the world, to talk about how these technologies can actually solve real-world problems and reduce costs and improve the efficiency of particularly cross-border payments, an area that here at WEF they care a lot about and population that\u2019s paying the most for remittance costs that can least afford it.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n https:\/\/youtube.com\/watch?v=pf3t3pECz1k%3Ffeature%3Doembed<\/p>\n On April 27, during another\u00a0interview\u00a0with Fox Business, the Ripple CEO talked about the lawsuit brought against his firm last December by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).<\/p>\n He\u00a0said:\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so important for the industry to have clarity. Innovation here in the United States in some ways is on trial. We want innovation here in the US around crypto, around blockchain, to thrive. And without that clarity, innovation goes to markets where there is clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cOne of the ironies is, the United States is the only country on the planet that has viewed XRP as a security. Whether it\u2019s Japan, the UK, Switzerland, Singapore \u2013 they all view XRP as a currency. Yet here at home, where Ripple is headquartered, the US SEC has taken a different position.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n Garlinghouse also expressed his frustration over the SEC\u2019s claim that Ripple should have known all along that XRP is a security:<\/p>\n \u201cYou have other parts of the US government saying that XRP is a currency. Whether it be the Department of Justice, whether it be the US Treasury, has called XRP a currency. So for the SEC eight or nine years after XRP started trading, over a trillion dollars has traded out there, for them to say, \u2018we now think it\u2019s a security\u2026\u2019 You should have known that all along. That seems pretty hard to swallow.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n
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