Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse shared that major banks, including Citi Bank, rejected working with him due to his crypto involvement.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has come clean about how top banking institutions like Citi Bank rejected to work with him just because of his crypto affiliation. While speaking at DC Fintech Week in Washington, the Ripple CEO said that individuals from the crypto industry face de-banking issues. “I personally have been de-banked,” he added.
He also shared his own experience with the US industry where regulatory crackdown prevented banks from working with Ripple. As we know, the SEC vs Ripple lawsuit has been going on for nearly four years now. For a long time, even some of the top crypto exchanges decided to de-list XRP XRP $2.19 24h volatility: 0.5% Market cap: $127.71 B Vol. 24h: $4.12 B .
Naming Citi Bank, Garlinghouse also said that the financial institution decided to cut him off recently after banking with them for 25 years. Referring to Citi Bank, the Ripple CEO added:
“They said, ‘You have five days to move your money. They were actually super honest. They’re like, ‘Look, you are a notable person in crypto, and having notable people in crypto, and banking the crypto industry means more scrutiny from federal regulators.”
Later, he also lashed out at the Joe Biden administration adding that the SEC Chair Gary Gensler has led a “reign of terror”. However, with the Kamal Harris crypto promises, Garlinghouse remains optimistic about a change for the better. “No matter what happens, we’re going to see a reset,” he said.
The key signal of the next administration’s approach to crypto will be the president’s appointments to agencies like the SEC, Treasury, OCC, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
“No matter what, we’re going to end up in a better place. When we look back on this period of time in the United States as it relates to crypto, it’s going to look like a speed bump,” he said.
Ripple CEO Confident of XRP ETF
As Ripple continues to make progress in its ongoing legal battle with the US SEC, Brad Garlinghouse remains confident that a spot XRP ETF will be absolutely inevitable. Citing the strong inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs so far, he said:
“It clearly demonstrates that there’s demand from institutions and retail to access this asset class.”
Earlier this month, Bitwise Asset Management Inc. became the first company to submit a filing to the SEC for an ETF that tracks XRP, the world’s seventh-largest digital token. Soon after, Canary Capital Group, a digital asset-focused investment firm established in September, also filed for the launch of its own Canary XRP ETF.
The Ripple CEO added that the demand for crypto ETFs clearly suggests at the rising institutional participation in the market. “It creates upwards pressure on the prices for many different cryptos, including XRP,” he said.
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