No matter how you slice it, crypto certainly has a bigger voice in the election cycle than ever before.
It's a great way to get into our next guest Ripple CEO Brad Garling House, of course, one of the companies we named when it came to the involvement in this election cycle. And Brad, you know, it's interesting because your co founder, Chris Larsen, has given a lot of
money to the Harris campaign. You had just told us a little bit ago that you are fiercely independent, and so when you think about the differences in the candidates and how they might approach crypto, what do you really know, particularly because the Harris campaign has been far more vague.
Well, I think there's one thing I feel very confident about, and that is the Biden Administration's approach to regulation of the crypto industry. That is coming to an end for sure, and I think no matter where this plays out at the presidential level, we will have a more constructive engagement with this industry. It's a critical industry, it's an innovative technology, and I think the United States should be at the forefront and leading, as we did with the Internet of Information.
I think we'll get there. As I said yesterday at the Philadelphia Federal Reserve, I think Gary Gensler's reign of terror on the crypto industry is going to come to an end very soon. Brad.
In your view, does it matter if Kamala Harris is president come January twentieth or Donald Trump is president come January twentieth, what's better for you?
What's better for Ripple? Well, I've taken a very neutral point of view for the crypto industry. I think it's clear that the Republicans at a macro level have been more proactive in saying this is an industry that needs clear regulation. You have seen a Republican led bill in the House pass with seventy one or seventy two Democrats crossing the alge to support that in a very bipartisan way.
So I think we have seen a more Republican centric But I also think you've seen indications that the Harris campaign wants to reset some of the very flawed approaches that the Biden administration has had with the crypto industry and other parts of technology. So what I'm optimistic about is we're going to sea change, We're going to cea reset, and I think we need that at the federal level
the United States. There's no question the United States is behind other leading countries like the UK, like Switzerland, like Singapore, like Japan that are way ahead and providing constructive and clear regulation and rules of the road for this industry.
Bred. I also want to kind of switch gears here and talk about another milestone, let's call it for XARP, which is this idea that you have asset managers now filing for ETFs tied to it. Started by bit wise, what is the prospect of having that spot ETF tied to XRP anytime soon and what do you think it'll mean for the price of XRP.
Well, I think we clearly are seeing ETFs have been popular. You know, the United States SEC was dragged kicking and screaming to approve the Bitcoin ETF in January. I think you've seen about seventeen billion dollars flow into that ETF. I think it's the fastest growing ETF in history. It's very clearly demonstrating those demand from institutions, demand from retail to access this asset class. So the XRP interest has grown. You've seen two or three ETF filings happen around XRP,
and to me, it's just inevitable. You're going to see not just Bitcoin and Eth, You're going to see an XRP ETF. You're starting to see there's a filing around a basket ETF that has I think five or six cryptos in it, which I think also makes a lot of sense. But it also is just part of the trend of more and more institutionalized participation in the crypto industry.
So I think we're going to continue to see that, and I do think it creates upward pressure on the prices for many different cryptos, including XRP.
It flows into the Bitcoin ETFs have been pretty remarkable. Not so remarkable have been flows into the ETFs. What indication do you have, Brad, that there actually is demand for an XRP ETF.
Well, I would disagree that there's not. That. The ETH ETF I think has done exceptionally well. It hasn't done as well as Bitcoin, but if you look at the kind of market dominance of Bitcoin compared to Eth, the ratio is about the same in terms of the ETF participation. Obviously, the Eth ETF is newer, so I actually think the
Eth ETF has done very well. I think we clearly see a very interested and active community around the XRP ecosystem, both here in the United States and beyond, and that has grown, and so I think that the a XRP ETF will will do quite well.
You know, I also want to talk about another overhang on the XRP price, and that is the ongoing battle you have with the SEC. And you have that recent move by the SEC to appeal a court judgment that had been more favorable for Ripple in this In this fight, when does it I'm spread.
So, look, it's super frustrating. Obviously XRP. It happens to be the XRP was rallying and then the announcements around the ETFs and the SEC decides to from my point of view, manipulate the market, and the price of XRP goes down twenty percent. Now, the good news is they're not appealing whether not XRP is actually a security, and I think this is actually misunderstood in the market. They're appealing kind of a nuanced piece around programmatic sales of XRP.
So the law of the land is clear, XRP is not a security. It's a sad reality. There's only two digital assets where there is regulatory clarity, that's bitcoin and XRP. But do we really want to have to go and litigate every single token to determine what whether or not they are securities or not. We need clear rules of the road. And the sec has just not been a good faith actor, and luckily the courts and federal judges have called them out on that and used words like
they're being arbitrary and capricious. That's a quote, saying things like they're not acting with a good faith, a llegion and still law another quote. So this is not an agency that has acted in good faith to find a way to regulate this industry in a way that works for the industry and works to protect consumers.
Hey, Brat, we mentioned earlier that Ripple one of the biggest donors out there when it comes to campaign contributions, whether those are going to a political action committee or two candidates, what are you looking for in return from these politicians?
We are looking to get progressive, forward thinking, pro innovation, and pro crypto people elected. And the fact that crypto in any way has become partisan is it's kind of madness to me. It's almost like saying one politician is against email and one is pro email, Like it doesn't really make sense. What I think regulators and elected politicians should focus on is how are these technologies used, not
taking the issue with one technology or another. So we have gotten active because we've had such a hostile environment here in the United States, and again I'll contrast that with we've had a massively growing business outside the United States in markets where regulars and elected officials have engaged and created clear rules of the road. So we've been actually very happy and excited about how that has played out.
And I think we're seeing pro innovation, pro technology, pro consumer protection candidates get elected over candidates who really have had backwards views of in frankly, spreading misinformation and lies about how crypto is being used.
Yad, I want to switch gears for a second here, got to get your opinion on what we just saw just this week, eye popping deal really for our Stripe to acquire a stable cooin platform, a more than billion dollar deal in this industry, when you look at a deal like that, do you say, Okay, maybe we sell Ripple or at least partner with another large financial technology firm to expand in the world of stable coins.
Look at that as a very positive sign that this industry is just coming more and more mainstream, more and more integrated, and more and more demand and different payment flows. So I've view it's a very positive thing for the industry. As you probably know, you know, Ripple is about to release our own stable coin called r l USD. I think the stable coin market's going to continue to grow, and I think Stripe is clearly indicating they think the same.
Ripple CEO Brad garling House joining us from DC Fintech Week down in Washington and d C. Thanks so much for taking the time to appreciate it.