The CEO of Ripple had a fight with a well-known venture capitalist and entrepreneur about whether XRP could be considered a security.
Brad Garlinghouse said the company has already spent about $200 million in legal fees during years of litigation with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). American entrepreneur Jason Calacanis responded by saying that it would make more sense for Ripple to register XRP as a security, in accordance with SEC requirements, and continue to comply with the agency’s rules, as “everyone else” does.
Garlinghouse questioned Calacanis’ knowledge of securities laws. The Ripple executive found it embarrassing and funny that there are still no rules in the US that issuers of crypto assets must follow. However, the public has already become accustomed to making provocative statements and expressing opinions on topics about which it lacks knowledge, Garlinghouse quipped.
remind me when you learned securities law?! This is embarrassing for you (and hilariously wrong as there is no framework to register digital assets in the US), but we’re all used to you making controversial statements and trolling about things you know nothing about…
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) May 9, 2023
Lawyer John Deaton, who defends the interests of XRP holders, also criticized Calacanis for his statement. According to the lawyer, XRP is a line of software code that cannot be registered under current US laws. Deaton asked rhetorically: where are other blockchains such as Ethereum, Cardano, Algorand and Stellar registered?
Claiming Ripple sold XRP as a security is one thing. Saying XRP is a security is another. XRP is a line of code inside software. How do you register?
“to have registered it as a security and played by the rules like everyone else.”
Where did ETH, ADA, ALGO, XLM, etc. register?
— John E Deaton (@JohnEDeaton1) May 9, 2023
Venture capitalist Jason Calacanis has always been opposed to cryptocurrencies and has been skeptical of them. A few years ago, he called most cryptocurrency projects “garbage created by unskilled idiots.”
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