Share this article
Ripple CEO Defends XRP's Utility at Fintech Conference
"Let's be clear: Ripple is different than XRP," said Ripple head Brad Garlinghouse during day two of CB Insights' Future of Fintech conference.
Updated Dec 12, 2022, 12:51 p.m. Published Jun 21, 2018, 5:00 p.m.
Make us preferred on Google
"Let's be clear: Ripple is different than XRP," Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of distributed ledger startup Ripple, argued during CB Insights' Future of Fintech conference on Thursday.
Garlinghouse opened his talk by pushing back against arguments that the XRP cryptocurrency may be considered a security, given its close link to the San Francisco-based company. He also spoke about the work the company has done to date in partnership with a range of banks and financial firms.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Perhaps his strongest comments came in response to a question about whether XRP is a security for Ripple, a claim he – and other Ripple employees – have strongly rejected. A senior official for the Securities and Exchange Commission recently stated that bitcoin and ether aren't securities and the lack of any similar comment about XRP renewed that critique.
As he explained during the CB Insights event:
"XRP is not a security for three reasons: if Ripple, the company, shuts down tomorrow, the XRP ledger will continue to operate; it's an open-source, decentralized technology .... if you buy XRP, [you are] not buying shares of Ripple - buying XRP doesn't give you ownership of Ripple."
Garlinghouse also repeated concerns he has about bitcoin, saying "I own ... [and] am bullish on bitcoin but we need to acknowledge ... when we talked about something being centralized and decentralized, control is the key element."
He even went so far as to cast doubt on the SEC's classification that bitcoin is not a security, asking "How decentralized is it?"
"Three miners in China control more than 50 percent of the hash rate of bitcoin," he asserted, contending that the Chinese government may interfere with these miners and, as a result, have the ability to exert some form of control.
Brad Garlinghousehttps://www.cbinsights.com/research-future-of-fintech-livestream/?utm_campaign=FoF18&utm_content=73207902&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter image via CB Insights
More For You
Pudgy Penguins is building a multi-vertical consumer IP platform — combining phygital products, games, NFTs and PENGU to monetize culture at scale.
What to know:
Pudgy Penguins is emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands of this cycle, shifting from speculative “digital luxury goods” into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform. Its strategy is to acquire users through mainstream channels first; toys, retail partnerships and viral media, then onboard them into Web3 through games, NFTs and the PENGU token.
The ecosystem now spans phygital products (> $13M retail sales and >1M units sold), games and experiences (Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in two weeks), and a widely distributed token (airdropped to 6M+ wallets). While the market is currently pricing Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption and deeper token utility.
More For You
Bitcoin climbs above $89,000 as U.S. dollar tumbles on President Trump's remarks
The president said he isn't concerned about the dollar's recent declines, sending the greenback plunging even lower.
What to know:
- Bitcoin rallied above $89,000 as remarks by President Trump sent the dollar to its lowest level in nearly four years.
- Gold rose to a new record above $5,200 per ounce following the president's comments.
- One analyst is seeing a bullish technical divergence which could send bitcoin back to $95,000 in short order.
Top Stories
