Brad Garlinghouse calls the lawsuit “misguided”
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has doubled down on his criticism of an op-ed published by former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton.
In a recently published letter, Garlinghouse describes Clayton’s article as “staggeringly ironic.”
The Ripple boss went on to accuse the industry of stifling innovation with his enforcement action against one of the leading companies within the cryptocurrency industry:
Mr. Clayton stifled the crypto industry while in office, yet now he calls for the government to facilitate the adoption of the technology.
As reported by U.Today, Clayton was ripped by the XRP community over his pro-cryptocurrency op-ed that made a case for tokenizing the U.S. payment system in order to keep up with China and the rest of the world.
The former SEC chair adopted a crypto-friendly stance after becoming an advisor at two cryptocurrency-focused companies.
Garlinghouse pointed to a letter by former SEC commissioner Joseph Grundfest, in which he admonished the agency for bringing a lawsuit against Ripple.
Grundfest, who was appointed by Republic president Ronald Reagan, called the enforcement action “highly problematic” and added that it would cause significant harm to investors regardless of the resolution:
But simply initiating the action will impose substantial harm on innocent holders of XRP, regardless of the ultimate resolution.
It should be noted that Ripple retained Grundfest as its defense counsel, which is why his opinion on the case should be taken with a grain of salt. The same applies to Mary Jo White, who said that the SEC was “dead wrong” to sue the SEC back in her February interview with Fortune.
Clayton recently refused to address the Ripple lawsuit in an interview with CNBC, claiming that he wanted facts to speak for themselves.