{"id":53287,"date":"2025-10-16T17:46:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T17:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=53287"},"modified":"2025-10-16T17:46:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T17:46:32","slug":"ripple-ceo-we-continue-to-play-offense-in-race-for-us-crypto-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=53287","title":{"rendered":"Ripple CEO: \u2018We Continue To Play Offense\u2019 In Race For US Crypto Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

At DC Fintech 2025, Ripple chief executive Brad Garlinghouse cast the company\u2019s post-litigation posture as unapologetically expansionary, arguing that US policy winds have shifted from \u201cvery strong headwinds to pretty strong tailwinds\u201d and that the industry is closer to durable clarity than at any point since the SEC\u2019s enforcement-led approach took hold.<\/p>\n

Ripple Aims For US Crypto Leadership<\/h2>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to play offense,\u201d he said<\/a>, framing Ripple\u2019s near-term priorities across payments, custody and stablecoins and highlighting an acquisitive stance that now includes a $1.25 billion purchase of prime broker Hidden Road<\/a> and a $200 million acquisition of enterprise stablecoin provider Rail. He added that more announcements are imminent: \u201cWe think now is the time to invest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garlinghouse situated that confidence in the political turn he sees in Washington following Ripple\u2019s courtroom victory. He described the company as \u201cthe tip of the spear in the Biden administration\u2019s attack on crypto through the SEC,\u201d but argued the fight elevated Ripple\u2019s standing and catalyzed industry mobilization on the Hill.<\/p>\n

Pointing to the House passage of the Clarity Act with cross-party support, he said, \u201cThe Clarity Act<\/a> passed the House with like 78 Dems coming over to support a Republican bill, which I think is indicative of the desire for these technologies to be embraced.\u201d While he declined to handicap the Senate, he emphasized the momentum is bipartisan and technology-driven rather than ideological: \u201cThis topic should never have been partisan. It\u2019s almost like saying one side\u2019s pro-email and the other\u2019s anti-email.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CEO\u2019s sharpest language targeted the SEC\u2019s previous posture under Chair Gary Gensler, which he portrayed as counterproductive for innovation and consumer protection alike. Citing the judge in Ripple\u2019s case, Garlinghouse said, \u201cA federal judge said about the Gensler SEC,<\/a> \u2018they are not following a faithful allegiance to the law.\u2019 That\u2019s pretty damning for a federal judge who happened to be appointed by Obama.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cI definitely don\u2019t think we\u2019ll go back to that. Frankly, I think that was a dark day for technology in the United States,\u201d arguing regulation-by-enforcement pushed activity offshore \u201cwhere ironically it\u2019s less regulated and there\u2019s fewer consumer protections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ripple Has A CEO, XRP Not<\/h2>\n

Garlinghouse repeatedly contrasted Ripple, a private company that \u201craised venture capital and issued stock,\u201d with XRP, \u201can open source technology that is kind of native to our products.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to persistent misconceptions, he said: \u201cPeople will say things like, well, XRP has a CEO. And I\u2019m like, who is it? Ripple has a CEO \u2014 that\u2019s me. There are scores, if not a hundred other CEOs building around the XRP ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

He stressed that Ripple does not control the XRP Ledger\u2019s rule-set: \u201cThere have been amendments passed to the XRP open source technology that we opposed \u2014 and they still passed. That\u2019s okay. That\u2019s open source technology,\u201d noting that ledger amendments require 80% community approval.<\/p>\n

Ripple\u2019s Push For A Fed Master Account<\/p>\n

On banking access, Garlinghouse urged regulators and incumbents to match compliance expectations with equal access to core infrastructure. \u201cHold traditional finance accountable,\u201d he said. \u201cYes, the crypto industry should be held to the same standard as AML, KYC, OFAC. Yes, yes, yes. And we should have the same access to infrastructure like a Fed master account. You can\u2019t say one and then combat the other. That\u2019s disingenuous.\u201d<\/p>\n

He confirmed Ripple has applied for a national bank charter and argued that granting master accounts<\/a> to firms like Circle<\/a> and Ripple would \u201cde-risk stablecoins,\u201d provided they are \u201cheld to the same regulatory standards as a bank.\u201d He also said Ripple launched its stablecoin \u201cunder a New York trust license,\u201d calling it \u201cthe gold standard\u201d for the institutional clientele the company targets.<\/p>\n

The practical constraint for cautious banks, he suggested, is the absence of fully codified law, even as agency postures evolve. He cited recent bank-side engagement \u201caround stablecoins for sure\u201d and said \u201cthe Genius Act obviously helped,\u201d while acknowledging some institutions remain wary of policy reversals in future election cycles.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, he argued time is working in crypto\u2019s favor and that codification, when it comes, will accelerate participation. \u201cThe more time that goes by, the better I think it is for the industry, period,\u201d he said, adding that Ripple\u2019s court clarity immediately spurred building \u201cin and around the XRP ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garlinghouse framed the broader policy debate as a competition for fintech leadership. \u201cThe US leaned into the Internet in the late 90s. We\u2019ve leaned out in blockchain. It doesn\u2019t make sense to me,\u201d he said, noting entrepreneurs already choose jurisdictions with clear rules such as Europe\u2019s MiCA or the UK\u2019s regime.<\/p>\n

He urged Congress to end \u201cregulation through enforcement\u201d in favor of predictable frameworks so that \u201cconsumers are protected\u201d and companies \u201cknow how to operate,\u201d stressing that \u201cthe vast, vast, vast majority of entrepreneurs I know in crypto want to play by the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also recounted the practical consequences of the prior policy climate, saying it was once \u201cvery, very hard\u201d for major banks to engage and that he himself had been \u201cdebanked by Citibank during the last four years.\u201d The upshot, he argued, was a frozen US market while international clients pressed ahead, a dynamic he illustrated with an arresting statistic: \u201cOne quick data point is 80 percent of Ripple\u2019s hiring between 2001 and 2004 [sic] was non-US, because that\u2019s where our customers were.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, he believes the \u201cship has sailed\u201d on crypto\u2019s permanence in the US financial system. \u201cYou can\u2019t put the genie back in the bottle,\u201d he said. \u201cThis tsunami is still coming. And I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything the US federal government is going to do to stop that.\u201d<\/p>\n

At press time, XRP traded at $2.42.<\/p>\n

\"XRP<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At DC Fintech 2025, Ripple chief executive Brad Garlinghouse cast the company\u2019s post-litigation posture as unapologetically expansionary, arguing that US policy winds have shifted from \u201cvery strong headwinds to pretty strong tailwinds\u201d and that the industry is closer to durable clarity than at any point since the SEC\u2019s enforcement-led approach took hold. Ripple Aims For […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-53287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}