- Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has slammed recent comments by SEC Chair Gary Gensler as slander and said he’ll cost Joe Biden the election.
- Garlinghouse’s comments echo those of billionaire Mark Cuban in May amid growing concerns over Biden’s anti-crypto persona as the two presidential candidates head into their first debate.
There’s no love lost between Ripple CEO and SEC Chair Gary Gensler after the industry-altering, protracted lawsuit the regulator brought against the firm alleging it sold XRP in an unregistered security offering.
Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse has now accused Gensler of speaking “absolute nonsense” and slandering the crypto sector, adding that Gensler’s folly would shape the upcoming US election in November.
Gensler will cause Biden to lose the election.
Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple CEOGarlinghouse’s tweeted tirade was in response to Gensler’s comments to Bloomberg on June 26 where he broadly characterised the crypto industry’s leaders as criminals. Gensler said:
This is a field that the leading lights from a couple years ago are either in jail, about to go to jail, or awaiting extradition. Think about it, this is that field. That’s the field right now where the public has really been harmed, and there’s significant non-compliance in the field.
Gary Gensler, SEC Chair, Bloomberg Invest summitGarlinghouse: Nonsense From “The Man Who Completely Missed FTX”
Garlinghouse shared a clip of Gensler’s comments to social media site X, saying his insinuation that all crypto execs were going to jail was slanderous, and a bit rich coming from, “the man who completely missed FTX (and actually cozied up to SBF), and wasn’t even invited to the DOJ announcement about Binance.”
The Ripple CEO also mocks Gensler’s claim to be “working for the American public” when he’s been criticised in the past for his leadership, excessive rule-making, and regulation by enforcement of the crypto industry. Garlinghouse said if that were true he should have been fired already.
Finally, Garlinghouse states that Gensler’s combative stance against crypto will help usher in Donald Trump’s second term as President, given the damage caused to Biden’s administration.
Gensler Key Part of Anti-Crypto Narrative Around Biden
Garlinghouse isn’t the first to say the SEC’s agenda was hurting Biden’s reelection chances. American entrepreneur Mark Cuban said in May that Trump could win thanks to Gensler’s efforts that had made it “nearly impossible for legitimate crypto companies to operate, killing who knows how many businesses and ruining who knows how many entrepreneurs.”
Trump has recently been ramping up the spin machine to position himself as a ‘crypto-friendly’ candidate, backtracking on his previously stated scepticism around cryptocurrencies to curry favour with voters and funders.
This includes:
- Accepting crypto donations, releasing his own NFT collection, and endorsing crypto during his current presidential campaign.
- Saying he’d be “the crypto president” at a fundraiser with tech venture capitalists and tech/crypto execs in San Francisco in June.
- Telling Bitcoin miners he “loves and understands” crypto and would advocate for US-based mining operations at a meeting in June.
Related: ’I’m Good With It’ – Donald Trump Offers Strongest Crypto Endorsement Yet
Trump has also fuelled the view that Gensler is crypto’s enemy. In a campaign speech in May he vowed to stop hostility toward crypto affecting projects and said “Gensler is very much against [crypto]”
As the candidates go head-to-head in a televised debate today, it remains to be seen whether the pro/anti crypto narrative will be a topic. Many X users and the advocacy group Stand With Crypto had called upon CNN to include digital assets as a topic during the event.
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