Ripple Chief Brad Garlinghouse Says ‘The SEC Has Clearly Forgotten That The Government Works For The People’

Ripple CEO expresses frustration over the lack of consequences for perceived SEC overreach.

In a tweet on Saturday, Ripple chief Brad Garlinghouse asserted that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had forgotten its duty to consumers with its recent campaign of regulation by enforcement.

“There is no regard for those companies and people that this approach has harmed,” Garlinghouse said, expressing outrage for the regulatory approach of the SEC. “We all should be outraged. The SEC has clearly forgotten that the government works for the people.”

There is no regard for those companies and people that this approach has harmed.

We all should be outraged.

The SEC has clearly forgotten that the government works for the people.

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) October 15, 2022

The Ripple chief expressed frustration that the SEC has nothing to lose by suing the payments company. Notably, the government funds the commission with taxpayer dollars, and the commission, in recent months, has hoped to obtain more funding to expand its crypto enforcement arm despite almost doubling the workforce just recently.

The SEC in December 2020, named Garlinghouse, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen and Ripple in a lawsuit alleging XRP to be an unregistered security. Despite the SEC’s primary duty to protect consumers, there’s a case to be made that the biggest losers in this legal battle have been XRP holders and businesses utilizing XRP and the XRP Ledger in the US.

Notably, Crypto Eri last week expressed the same sentiments in a tweet in response to the amicus brief filed in support of Ripple by I-Remit. The firm, in its brief, highlighted that the SEC had conveniently chosen to ignore the utility XRP provides as a bridge currency for international settlements via RippleNet’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service.

It is worth noting that the case is edging to a close after nearly 2 years of back and forths, with Garlinghouse expecting a decision in Q1 2023. While the crypto community is largely optimistic about a win for Ripple, Garlinghouse had previously highlighted that a loss would have little impact on the company’s current operations as 95% of its clients are not in the US.