Ripple Cofounder Says Hiring Mostly Outside US; Blames US SEC Actions

Ripple Labs cofounder and executive chairman Chris Larsen blamed the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its hostile policy and regulatory crackdowns, stating that San Fransisco lost its pole position in pursuit of becoming the world’s leading blockchain hub.

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US SEC Forced Crypto Companies To Go Abroad

Speaking to Bloomberg, the cofounder said London, Singapore and Dubai have now grown to be bigger hubs for the blockchain industry than San Fransisco, owing to the unfavorable crypto market environment in the United States. Ripple was one of the largest victims of the SEC’s anti-crypto crackdown in recent years. Although the company bagged a major legal victory in the lawsuit against the US SEC, the loss it accrued in the US markets is irreversible, as several companies were hesitant to work closely with the company.

In the Summary Judgement, judge Analisa Torres ruled that the programmatic sale of XRP tokens does not qualify as securities. This led to the relisting of XRP for trading on major US based crypto exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken.

Ripple Cofounder: Crypto Policy Killed San Fransisco

The crypto ecosystem has been arguing the US SEC Chair Gary Gensler is resorting to the policy of “regulation by enforcement.” Chris Larsen said in the interview,

“They pretty much killed San Francisco from being what it was. We owned it and we don’t anymore because the Biden administration, for whatever reason, decided they want to push this industry offshore.”

Hence, lack of proactive regulation forced the crypto companies to go for legal action, with the likes of Coinbase and Binance too coming under the SEC’s radar in recent times. On the positive side, Ripple executives had recently remarked that the company began re-engaging with its US based clients following the US SEC lawsuit victory.

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