Ripple’s Legal Chief Hails Transformative Shift in Crypto Regulation

Ripple’s top lawyer said his team is “thrilled” to bring the company back to the United States. Stuart Alderoty, the Chief Legal Officer of Ripple, spoke to CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos on Crypto World about how the Trump election win has so far impacted crypto generally and the company specifically.

Related: Analyst Says US Bitcoin ETFs on Track to See Over $50 Billion Inflows in 2025

The Ripple lawyer claimed the previous government had waged an “inexplicable war” on crypto, focused on “driving crypto out of the country and not facilitating the technology at all”, which has changed under Trump.

Overnight and after the election, and after the inauguration, we have seen the new administration embrace the technology, looking to clear and natural regulatory hurdles and saying that we want to make the US the crypto capital of the world.

Stuart Alderoty

Ripple has done 75% of its hiring post-election in the United States, when in the past this was mostly done “offshore”.

Alderoty Explains Key Policy Focus of New US Administration

After living under a hostile administration for years, Alderoty highlighted three key areas which are of high importance right now: Trump’s executive orders (EO), changes at regulatory agencies such as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and congressional actions. 

This includes the establishment of a working group around Crypto Czar David Sacks to “come up with recommendations as to what clear rules and regulations” can be enacted by congress.

Trump has signed several EOs related to crypto, one of the potentially most significant being the call for a sovereign wealth fund which is rumoured to include Bitcoin – although Sacks has recently hinted that a Bitcoin reserve and a sovereign wealth fund could be quite separate topics.

Related: MicroStrategy Reveals It Stopped Buying More Bitcoin, Switched to HODL Mode

Gary Gensler has also stepped down from the position of SEC Chair, and acting Chair Mark Uyeda has already been good for the industry, according to Alderoty.

The new acting chair Mark Uyeda very quickly issued a statement that said they’re going to hit the reset button. The SEC is going to set up their own task force – an acknowledgement that what’s happened for the past four years has made it really impossible for the industry to understand what does it even mean to comply with the laws in the US.

Stuart Alderoty

Gensler routinely insisted that the “rules of the road are clear” and argued that firms just need to “come in and register”. Many had called this impossible, even within the SEC Gensler’s approach had been heavily criticised.

Alderoty also pointed to Uyeda’s repeal of controversial accounting guidance which made it “practically impossible for banks to custody crypto in the US”.  

Ripple’s Top Lawyer Thinks 2025 Will See Important Progress for Crypto

The Ripple lawyer also said that after years of engagement with Congress, 2025 could finally see some clear guidelines for US crypto adoption.  

This is the most crypto friendly congress we’ll ever see.[…] I do think that we are going to see really good legislative progress this year, maybe even a statute signed this year.

Stuart Alderoty

The statute, he explained, could be around a market structure bill, and may be “something that covers all aspects of how a crypto market would need to be regulated in the US”.

Related: Senator Lummis Puts Pressure on US Marshals’ To Defend its Record on Seized Bitcoin Management 

According to Alderoty, this could include a wide range of elements, from stablecoins to decentralised finance (DeFi) – which is quite an optimistic view and suggests that after years of resistance, the US could embrace and regulate the crypto sector in 2025.