RIPPLE @ DAVOS CEO BRAD GARLINGHOUSE #xrp #xrpnews #xlm #crypto #conspiracy #trending

🎥 Jan 10, 2024 📺 Collecting My Thoughts ⏱ 14m 👁 25 views

BRAD GARLINGHOUSE AT THE ANUAL DAVOS CONVENTION SPEAKING ABOUT CRYPTO REGULATIONS AND MUCH MORE........... Twitter: @MoneyCbdc Facebook: Cbdc Assets Tik-Tok: CbdcMoney NANO LEDGER COLD STORAGE WALLET: https://www.ledger.com/ LINK FOR COINBASE TRADING: https://www.coinbase.com/join/hansen_... LINK FOR UPHOLD ******ONLY PLACE TO GET XRP*******https://uphold.com/signup?referral=78... ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************PLEASE LIKE & SUBSCRIBE PLEASE LIKE & SUBSCRIBE PL...

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About Brad Garlinghouse

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, has been active in public discussions about cryptocurrency regulation, stablecoins, and the company's business strategy. He criticized JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, stating that Dimon has "been dismissing this industry for decades" and suggested Dimon is trying to protect JPMorgan's profitable payments business by opposing the CLARITY Act. Garlinghouse described Dimon's comments as "either intentionally misrepresentation or negligent." He expressed optimism about the CLARITY Act, predicting in late April that if it does not get out of committee by the end of the third week of May, "we're in real trouble," but that it would likely pass the Senate if it clears committee. He later said the chances of passage were around 80%, noting that prediction markets had reached the same figure. Garlinghouse also discussed Ripple's business developments, including the launch of an AI developer toolkit and the growth of its stablecoin, which he said had become a top-five stablecoin by growth 18 months after launch. He predicted the stablecoin market cap would reach $3 trillion by 2031. Regarding AI, he called layoffs attributed to AI a "travesty," arguing that AI is an "unlock and enabler" for growth rather than a tool to reduce headcount. He stated that Ripple has not prioritized going public and that the company remains focused on enterprise clients, including banks and payment providers.

Source: AI-verified profile updated from Brad Garlinghouse's recent appearances. Browse all interviews →

Transcript (23 segments)

✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution

Interviewer0:00

It certainly didn't sound like the SEC or the chair, Gary Gensler, changed their tone even after the approval of the Bitcoin ETF. There was a statement—Gary Gensler said he didn't endorse Bitcoin, he still called most other crypto assets securities. Is this posturing, or do you think there's a chance the SEC has changed its stance?

Brad Garlinghouse0:18

There's an expression about—one of the definitions of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and not expecting a different outcome. I think Gary Gensler is doing the same thing over and over again and thinks that somehow he's going to win in court. He has continued to lose in court. I do think the chair of the SEC, Gary Gensler, has become a political liability in the United States. I think he's not acting in the best interest of the citizenry, he's not acting in the best interest of the long-term growth of the economy. I don't understand it, and I think at some point there will be a new chair of the SEC, and I think that'll be a good thing for the American people. There were a couple of interesting things after the Bitcoin ETF was approved. One, and I paraphrase, was effectively Gary Gensler saying just because we allowed the Bitcoin ETF, don't think we're now going to allow a bunch of other crypto assets. The second interesting thing was the price of Ether skyrocketed immediately after on hopes that there could now next be an ETH ETF.

Interviewer1:18

What are the chances of that?

Brad Garlinghouse1:22

I think it's a certainty. I'm not going to put a horizon on the time, but I think there will be other ETFs for sure, and XRP—there will be other ETFs for sure. But look, the sad part of that reality is we have a Bitcoin ETF only because a US court said to the SEC, 'You're being arbitrary and capricious in your application of the law.' What would be sad is if every ETF had to go through that same journey and for Gary Gensler to get smacked down by the US court system again. That might be necessary, but at some point I think Gary Gensler won't be the chair of the SEC, and that'll be a good thing for the American people.

Interviewer2:13

There's what the SEC does, and then there's what's going on in Washington among lawmakers, and those are linked but also separate. The US hasn't passed any kind of comprehensive regulation around crypto assets at this point, unlike what you see in the European Union with MiCA and some of the other jurisdictions you mentioned earlier. But there are a number of bills trying to make their way through the lawmaking process—one of those is around stablecoins, and there are a number of others as well. Do you think that in 2024 there is the political will, given it's an election year, to pass some of these bills and bring them into law?

Brad Garlinghouse2:55

I said earlier I don't like to predict things based on time, and this one—I think this year there will be legislation that passes. I won't be as predictive about which one. I think the likelihood is that the stablecoin clarity—I can't remember the name of the bill that has been going through the system in Washington DC—but I think we will see that, in part because the US Treasury wants it. The stablecoin market has really surprised people in terms of solving a real need, and I think it only makes sense for there to be regulatory clarity around that. I think that's good for the whole industry. One of the things you said earlier is whether there are skeletons in the closet in the stablecoin market—because there hasn't been clear rules of the road, it'll be interesting as that comes to fruition. The two primary, obviously USDT and USDC, I think they are here to stay, and I think you're going to see other entrants in that market too.

Interviewer3:57

You said before that the US risks losing some of the leadership around this industry, that other countries have taken a lead, and a lot of that is due to what the SEC does and the fact there isn't clear regulation in the US. If the regulation does pass this year, if there are clearer rules of the road for the broader industry, does that help? Will the US be able to compete with some of these other jurisdictions that took an early lead in this industry?

Brad Garlinghouse4:23

For sure, yes. I don't think that the market has passed the US—I think it is passing. We have publicly shared that over 70% of Ripple's hiring last year was non-US, despite the fact that there's still a majority of our employees in the United States. Why would we want to hire in a market where we have a hostile government, a government who won't provide the clarity we have asked for, where we had to fight for years and spend well over $100 million in the court system to fight them? There will continue to be a lot of activity in London, Dubai, Singapore, and some of the other financial capitals of the world, but I think the US eventually figures it out. I don't know how to predict what's going to happen in the election cycle, but no matter what, there's going to be a shift, and I think we will see a shift at the SEC—hopefully to a new chair that is constructive and wants to work with the industry and not put their own agenda ahead of the American people's.

Interviewer5:27

I've been asking you this since 2020 because that's how long it's been going on—the Ripple versus the SEC lawsuit. When do we get a conclusion?

Brad Garlinghouse5:32

Most of it has been resolved. The SEC filed a lawsuit in December of 2020, just over three years ago, against me, against Chris Larsen, and against Ripple. The cases against Chris and Brad—myself—have been dismissed entirely with prejudice, meaning they can't ever bring it back. And the case against Ripple—they lost on everything they cared about. Their primary tenet was that XRP is a security, and in the Judge Torres opinion, what she wrote is XRP is in and of itself not a security. I feel very good about that. The SEC then asked for approval to appeal that decision, and that was denied. The SEC has lost consistently in this case. There is a piece of the case that continues around institutional sales, because investment contracts where Ripple sold XRP to institutions who wanted to speculate—the irony there is the SEC's mission is to protect investors. How many of our institutional XRP sales did they lose money? None. What are we arguing about? That will proceed through the court system for a little bit longer, but I feel very good about where we are, and I'm frankly really pleased for the whole XRP ecosystem and the whole crypto market benefited immensely from that legal win.

Interviewer6:52

For the last five minutes, Brad, let's talk about Ripple—what your focus is this year, where you're going, and the future for 2024. Where are you putting your energy?

Brad Garlinghouse7:01

A couple of things come to mind. Our core product, Ripple Payments, has continued to grow, and that's something we'll continue to invest in—more payout markets around the world. Through an acquisition, we entered the custody market in 2023. Certainly, a lot of our incremental new investment in 2024 will be invested in the custody business. On one hand I say yes, however there's already a tremendous amount of demand—that business is growing very quickly. We announced publicly just a month or two ago that HSBC is a new client of that business. These are big accounts as well as more mid-market accounts. The custody business is very real and is going to continue to grow nicely. Ripple thinks about entering other vertical markets—payments, custody—I think we'll do other things in 2024. Some of those will probably enter through acquisition. We've been very fortunate to have a very strong balance sheet at a time that the market has shifted and the valuations of a lot of these companies are not what they once was. That's been an opportunity for us, and so we're going to continue to play offense.

Interviewer8:15

What are the areas that interest you then?

Brad Garlinghouse8:19

I'm not going to announce to the world the key areas, but Ripple at its core is a blockchain infrastructure company serving enterprises. We started with payments and financial institutions, we've moved into custody—a lot of overlap with those same financial institutions—but we're going to expand with that same thematic of infrastructure, enterprise-based. It's served us well.

Interviewer8:45

What are your growth expectations this year? What revenue growth are you tracking? Will you be profitable this year?

Brad Garlinghouse8:55

We have been cash flow positive the last couple of years. That has been a unique place in the market and allowed us to invest not only in the core of Ripple but also in acquisitions. Recently you may have read we did a tender offer to our shareholders—we've now repurchased over a billion dollars of stock from our shareholders. That's something that's important to us, quite frankly, because it is not an immediate-term priority to go public. In the United States, trying to go public with a very hostile regulator that has to approve your S-1—that doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me. Coinbase obviously had their S-1 approved, and now the SEC is suing them for doing things that were outlined in their S-1. There's a hearing tomorrow about some of that, but I think it's indicative of why would we want to subject ourselves to an SEC that is openly hostile to this industry.

Interviewer9:47

In terms of an IPO, is that sort of parked to the side at this point, or are you looking elsewhere outside the US for a listing?

Brad Garlinghouse9:55

Yes to all of those. I don't think about an IPO as an exit—I think about an IPO as a step in the journey. Shareholder liquidity is important to me. We have investors that first invested in Ripple in 2012, so they've been in this deal for 11 and a half years. We want to provide that liquidity, which is one of the reasons why we've done these tender offers and now repurchased just over a billion dollars of stock. We have looked at other jurisdictions that have clear rules of the road, but honestly, a lot of people go public because they need to raise capital. Ripple is not really in a place where we need to raise capital, and so it is not a short-term priority. We're obviously keeping that option open, and we'll evaluate it as time continues, and we'll evaluate again as we have new regulators sitting at the United States SEC. I guess some of it's market-dependent as well. Last year was an interesting space in the tech world more broadly—there were a lot of secondaries, buybacks, but very few IPOs. The market wasn't obviously very great for them, so it's also how the broader markets play out. For sure, that's part of it. Not just the public markets but also the crypto markets—Coinbase's stock is in a much stronger position now than it was a year ago, but obviously well off its highs from three years ago when it went public. It's just not a huge priority. We have a lot of capital, very strong balance sheet. We can continue to play offense through acquisitions, invest in the business.

Interviewer11:45

How do you think the retail investor feels? In previous cycles, you get the initial bump up sort of at the phase we're in now, and what takes it really to those all-time highs is the fever amongst the retail investors. The last cycle was special—it was a very different crypto winter to one we had seen before, characterized by a lot of bankruptcies, a lot of contagion, and then obviously the issues with FTX and Binance. Do you think the retail investor at this point may be a little bit more cautious this time around, this cycle, about dipping their toe back in?

Brad Garlinghouse12:22

I think probably yes, but look—one of the advantages of having been around the block once or twice, I remember the earliest days of the internet as we know it. The retail investor really drove the hype cycle of Internet 1.0—I'm talking about 1999, 2000—and then you had a washout in 2001, 2002, and that was a painful dot-com crash. But today when we sit here, some of the most valuable companies on the planet—Alphabet, Meta—these are companies that were born of that era. I think what happens in the short term around crypto—I take a very long view, and I encourage, whether you're a retail investor or an institutional investor, I think if you take a long-term view about where these markets are going and why there's so much momentum despite the self-inflicted wounds—again, as you and I talked backstage, Bitcoin's not that far from its all-time high right now—I'm very optimistic about what we're going to see this year.

Interviewer13:27

Brad, just as we wrap up, I was walking down the promenade yesterday, and crypto has been displaced by AI as the cool kid on the block. How do you feel about that?

Brad Garlinghouse13:36

I'm thrilled. I think it's good that crypto is boring now. I think every new technology goes through a hype cycle. I think AI is also a technology here to stay, transformational in a lot of ways, but also not exactly clear what the business models are, how it's going to play out—and I think that's where crypto was a few years ago. I think now we're further along, and I think that's a very positive thing for the crypto industry. I'm excited about what's going on in AI. I'm a voyeur, not a participant in that world, but it's going to be interesting.

Interviewer14:09

Brad, always a pleasure to speak to you. That was a well-timed tour as always. Thank you so much for joining me today. A round of applause for Brad Garlinghouse, CEO over at Ripple!