Ripple CEO Says Bitcoin Tribalism Is Holding Crypto Industry Back

By Kevin • April 21, 2022 1:24 pm • Comments

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has recently made a statement in an interview that Bitcoin “tribalism” is an issue that is holding the entire crypto industry back.

He states that this will create polarization and unequal representation when Congress decides how to treat digital assets going forward.

Instead, Garlinghouse is advocating for a more inclusive environment where multiple blockchain projects can succeed at the same time with XRP being one of them.

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Examples of Bitcoin maximalists could include Jack Dorsey and Michael Saylor who specifically support only Bitcoin and not any other cryptocurrencies.

He mentions that the total market cap of crypto could potentially be much larger than 2 trillion if it weren’t for bitcoin “maximalism”.

CNBC reports:

Garlinghouse said such maximalism has meant the crypto industry has “fractured representation” when it comes to lobbying U.S. lawmakers.

Last month, President Joe Biden signed an executive order calling on the government to examine the risks and benefits of cryptocurrencies.

“The lack of coordination in Washington, D.C., amongst the crypto industry, I find to be shocking,” he said.

Ripple is often linked with XRP, a cryptocurrency the company uses for cross-border payments.

The company owns a majority of the 100 billion XRP tokens in circulation, which it periodically releases from an escrow account to keep prices stable.

Ripple is in court with the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations that it illegally sold over $1 billion worth of XRP in an unregistered securities offering. The company argues XRP should be considered a virtual currency, not a security.

Garlinghouse has also mentioned that he holds other crypto besides XRP as well such as Bitcoin.

He pointed out in the interview that each network has its own application and set of use cases that makes it valuable.

XRP excels at being a cross border payments platform for financial institutions while Bitcoin is best suited as an alternative asset that can be used as a store of wealth.

As a result, the main point is that there is enough room for all of these prominent digital assets to grow given that the crypto industry is only just starting to grow and is still far from its potential.

The industry, in a sense, sometimes resembles what happened during the dot com boom roughly 20 years ago where different web projects were competing against each other.

Yahoo reports:

Ripple’s native token has declined marginally on the day by 1.7%. At the time of writing, XRP was trading at $0.756, but it has gained 4.2% over the past week.

The token is way down from its all-time high, however, having lost 78% from the $3.40 price it hit in January 2018.

A lot hinges on its ongoing battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. If the company wins the case, the token could surge again, but it is likely to tank if the SEC wins and XRP is deemed a security.

The comments come during a time where the Biden administration has called for a government-wide investigation into crypto and to provide regulations that do not stifle the growth of the industry.

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