[Ripple CEO supports Ethereum, saying ETH and XRP are not securities]
During the recent XRP Las Vegas 2024 event, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse refuted the views of former MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor. Saylor has previously characterized ETH and several other cryptocurrencies as unregistered securities, including XRP, Solana (SOL), Binance Coin (BNB) and Cardano (ADA). He believes these assets are unlikely to be approved as exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
However, in a conversation with Arrington Capital founder Michael Arrington, Garlinghouse pointed out that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is completely wrong to review ETH and XRP as securities. He further criticized SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, calling him an "unethical person," which was revealed by pro-crypto journalist Eleanor Terret in an X article for Fox Business.
Additionally, the SEC labeled XRP a security in its 2020 lawsuit against Ripple, but last year a U.S. federal judge ruled that XRP was not a security. The judge also noted that Ripple violated the law when it sold XRP to institutional customers.
As for ETH, the SEC has not explicitly considered it a security and is only investigating whether certain transactions related to ETH constitute investment contracts. In response to the SEC’s regulatory action, Consensys, founded by Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin, sued the SEC in a Texas court, accusing it of excessive regulation. Consensys argued that the SEC was seeking to regulate ETH as a security even though it lacked the characteristics of a security. The company backed its position by citing a statement from William Hinman, former director of the SEC’s Division of Corporate Finance, which confirmed that ETH is not a security and does not fall within the SEC’s regulatory scope.
The cryptocurrency community is currently paying close attention to the SEC’s ongoing review of Ethereum and the impact it may have on the approval of an Ethereum ETF application this month.
