The Chief Executive Officer of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse expressed his dissatisfaction with United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by saying that it has contradictory crypto regulations.
At the Collision Conference 2022, Garlinghouse said that the SEC has inconsistently imposed regulations on crypto firms in the country.
Garlinghouse talked about Ripple’s ongoing legal conflict with the SEC, as the regulator has alleged the firm has done an “unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering” with XRP token sales.
Garlinghouse then pointed out how the SEC approved of Coinbase’s public offering last year even when the crypto exchange listed XRP at the time.
Also read: Ripple’s Counsel Criticizes SEC for Bulldozing Crypto Innovation
Garlinghouse said, “The SEC now seems to take the position when they sued us that ‘XRP is a security and always has been’, but they approved Coinbase going public even though Coinbase is not a registered broker-dealer.”
He further added, “There’s some contradictions here of the SEC, almost not, within its organization, knowing left hand, right hand.”
Garlinghouse further said that instead of doing the hard work to define a new set of clear rules, the SEC instead decides to do regulation through enforcement.
Calling the enforcement ‘inefficient’, he thinks that it has stifled innovation in the United States.
In response to SEC chairman Gary Gensler’s infamous characterization of crypto space as ‘Wild West’, Garlinghouse said, “I don’t think [crypto is] the Wild West at all.”
He elaborated that cryptos are surely a volatile asset class and that all assets have a certain volatility. However, he called it a regulator’s job to decide how that volatility should be accessed by consumers or businesses.
Also read: SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce Opposes Crypto Bailouts
