Ethereum's success is, at least in part, due to a favorable attitude from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). That was stated by the head of Ripple Brad Garlinghouse at the DC Fintech Week online conference.
Garlinghouse considers it unfair for the SEC to classify XRP as a security, but has no claims against Ethereum. According to him, the position of the regulator had a significant impact on the market.
“XRP has been the second-largest digital asset in terms of market value over the past several years. When it became clear that the SEC had given the green light to Ethereum, this regulatory clarity allowed the price of ETH to rise,” he said.
In 2017, XRP did manage to briefly occupy the second line of the cryptoasset market capitalization rankings. At the time of writing, the token is in seventh place with the combined value of ETH more than nine times XRP, according to CoinGecko.
In December 2020, the SEC accused Ripple and its executives of an unregistered sale of securities under the guise of digital tokens for $ 1.3 billion. Later, the regulator adjusted the claim, focusing on the actions of Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen.
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In July 2021, the company obtained a summons to the court of the ex-director of the department of corporate finance of the department, William Hinman. During the meeting, he said that he had warned Ripple about the risk of XRP being recognized as a security.
In 2018, Hinman stated that Ethereum lacks the inherent properties of securities.
The human rights organization Empower Oversight saw a possible conflict of interest in the actions of the ex-official. At the time, he was allegedly "receiving millions of dollars from his former employer, the law firm Simpson Thacher." It was affiliated with the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, which promoted the digital asset.
According to the founder of the law firm Deaton Law Firm, John Deaton, Hinman received $ 15 million from Simpson Thacher. The lawyer clarified that the leaders of the latter were on the board of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.
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On October 19, Garlinghouse was interviewed by Fox Business reporter Charlie Gasparino. The head of Ripple admitted that the conflict with the SEC did not affect the company's business in the best way - it cannot do business in the United States. At the same time, he stressed that a year outside the country is "amazing".
Garlinghouse noted that the Commission is trying to drag out the proceedings - the interrogation of several witnesses has already been postponed to January 2022. Ripple, on the other hand, seeks to resolve the issue in court as soon as possible.
“It seems to us quite obvious that we did not violate the American legislation on transactions with securities. XRP is not a security, and we think we will ultimately prove it in court. Therefore, we want to close the case as soon as possible,” he explained.
The Ripple chief also added that it is the SEC that "picks the winners and losers" of the cryptocurrency industry. So he commented on the approval for the launch of a Bitcoin futures ETF received by ProShares.