Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has declared that SEC’s recent actions wouldn’t distract the industry from its failure in what he called the “FTX debacle.” Garlinghouse also stated that Gensler’s actions now differ from his “pro-innovation stance”.
The recent regulatory clampdown on Binance and Coinbase has evoked a lot of issues in the crypto industry. After the SEC announced the lawsuit against Binance, the exchange saw net outflows amounting to $778 million in 24 hours. Also, on-chain analyst CryptoQuant revealed that withdrawals on Binance spiked following the announcement.
While the industry still reels from the US SEC’s actions against the two top crypto firms, its Chair, Gary Gensler, declared that the country doesn’t need more crypto assets.
SEC Chair Gensler’s Actions Negates The Message He Preaches
While speaking during CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on June 6, the US SEC Chair Gensler said,
“Look, we don’t need more digital currency,” “We already have digital currency. It’s called the U.S. dollar. It’s called the euro, or it’s called the yen; they’re all digital right now. We already have digital investments.”
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After the speech, the Ripple CEO took to Twitter to say that Gensler’s self-acclaimed support for innovation is laughable, given that his actions point to the opposite.
Recall that, while speaking before the Senate Banking Committee hearing in 2021 to consider him for SEC Chair nomination, Gensler said;
“I’m neither a maximalist nor a minimalist, but I do believe [blockchain is] a catalyst for change.”
But according to Coindesk, while Gensler’s background suggests he is pro-regulation and pro-crypto, the hearing didn’t have enough clues to pinpoint his full stance.
Moreover, Gensler carefully balanced his speech between “emphasizing regulating suspicious behavior and encouraging new innovations.” But due to the latest SEC actions, Ripple CEO says Gary Gensler is acting the opposite of what he proclaimed to be.
Lawsuits Against Crypto Exchanges Will Not Remove SEC’s Failure With FTX
Further, Garlinghouse stated that the SEC’s recent actions against crypto firms are attempts to distract the industry from its failure in FTX – a crash in 2022 sent shock waves in the entire financial industry as its contagion spread beyond the crypto industry.
After the crash, Ripple CEO slammed the SEC Chair, stating that FTX fraud caught him “completely flat-footed” even while “touting the commission’s actions as the cop on the beat.”
According to Garlinghouse, the SEC failed to investigate the firm for fraud before the crash, causing investors to lose millions of dollars. So Ripple CEO opines that suing crypto firms now won’t mask the regulator’s negligence in the FTX fraudulent practices.
Meanwhile, some enthusiasts believe the lawsuit against Binance is President Biden’s retaliation on the firm that supposedly “set FTX on fire.”
Notably, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) donated $5.2 million to President Biden’s campaign, the second-largest donation at the time.
According to a Twitter user;
Many forget CZ broke up the political money laundering operation that was FTX.”
Featured image from Pixabay and chart from TradingView.com