Ripple and Hedera Consider Collaboration to Further Crypto Innovation: Report
In an interesting conversation, Ripple’s head Brad Garlinghouse and Leemon Baird, co-founder of open-source decentralized ledger Hedera, discussed potential collaboration to foster the digital assets industry.
The crypto leaders recently shared their insightful thoughts on revolutionizing the trillion-dollar payments industry, during an interview hosted by Utopian Lab founder Max Walker-Williams at the World Economic Forum 2024 in Davos.
#XRPArmy #Hbarbarians 𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖’𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈. ✋🏻
I’ve just had the honour of interviewing two great men you may know from @Ripple and @hedera
We are stronger together says #Crypto legends @leemonbaird and @bgarlinghouse 👇🏻🤝🏻#Davos #Community #WEF24 pic.twitter.com/YaV7O9eWOA
— Max Walker-Williams (@MWalkerWilliams) January 17, 2024
The conversation opened up potential avenues for increased collaboration within the crypto space to foster innovation. Garlinghouse stressed the benefits of joining forces.
“We gonna make sure that we start talking about whether we can collaborate as well.”
Baird, from Hedera, echoed Garlinghouse’s sentiment and also shared thoughts derived from his conversations on the tokenization in a separate panel.
“When we as an industry work together, we can help keep users safe, build trust, and reach our potential to help the world,” Baird said in his post on X (formerly Twitter).
When we as an industry work together, we can help keep users safe, build trust, and reach our potential to help the world. #WEF24 @bgarlinghouse https://t.co/FAYcRZrA8h
— Leemon Baird (@leemonbaird) January 18, 2024
Garlinghouse Criticizes Regulatory Barrier
Ripple CEO Garlinghouse criticized the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler’s regulatory approach and the lack of clarity. During an interview with CNBC at Davos, he blasted Gensler, calling him a “political liability.”
“I do think the chair of the SEC, Gary Gensler, is a political liability in the United States. And I think he’s not acting in the interests of the citizenry, he’s not acting in the interests of the long-term growth of the economy, and I don’t understand it.” https://t.co/fjqnG9xnuk
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) January 16, 2024
“I do think the chair of the SEC, Gary Gensler, is a political liability in the United States. And I think he’s not acting in the interests of the citizenry, he’s not acting in the interests of the long-term growth of the economy, and I don’t understand it.”
He mentioned the lengthy delays in approving spot Bitcoin ETFs and high-profile lawsuits against Ripple. He also noted that a new SEC chair would be a “good thing” for Americans.
The regulator launched lawsuits against three major exchanges in 2023 – Binance, Coinbase and Kraken – accusing them of selling crypto tokens in unregistered securities sales. The trials are still ongoing.
On the other hand, Ripple is having a tough battle with the SEC in a lawsuit that erupted in 2020. The regulator charged the exchange and its executives for allegedly selling XRP tokens as unregistered securities. However, in October 2023, the SEC dropped claims against Garlinghouse and another Ripple executive and co-founder Chris Larsen.
Ripple Labs, last year, partially won the SEC lawsuit granted by the US District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan.
