Ripple CEO Set to Ignite Crypto Week with Urgent Call for Market Structure Legislation
As Crypto Week kicks off, all eyes turn to Ripple's CEO—who's poised to drop a regulatory bombshell.
The big question: Will lawmakers finally wake up to the trillion-dollar elephant in the room?
Here's why this speech could shake the foundations of crypto's Wild West era—and why Wall Street dinosaurs should be sweating.
(Spoiler: The 'innovators vs. regulators' cage match just got a fresh tank of oxygen.)
One cynical footnote: If history repeats, we'll get fiery rhetoric... followed by hedge funds quietly repositioning their bags.
Ripple's Brad Garlinghouse to speak at Senate Committee meeting on crypto legislation
Lawmakers are set for a Committee hearing on Wednesday to discuss the future of the digital asset market. The hearing, titled 'From Wall Street to Web3: Building Tomorrow's Digital Asset Markets,' will bring together many crypto industry leaders, including Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Summer Mersinger, CEO of Blockchain Association, Jonathan Levin, CEO of Chainalysis and Dan Robinson, General Partner at Paradigm.
Garlinghouse confirmed via an X post on Monday that he would be at the Senate Committee hearing. The Ripple CEO will speak on "the need for passing crypto market structure legislation."
"Constructive crypto market structure legislation in the US is imperative in bringing about a new era of innovation and financial opportunity, while protecting consumers," Garlinghouse wrote.
Garlinghouse's testimony comes as the crypto industry prepares for the House's 'Crypto Week,' — a term popularized by House Financial Committee Chair Rep French Hill and other House leaders. It defines the week of July 14, during which lawmakers will deliberate on three key legislative bills related to the crypto industry. These include the GENIUS stablecoin bill, the market structure CLARITY bill, and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State bill.
The CLARITY bill, which Garlinghouse will speak on its importance, aims to regulate the entire crypto market and clarify long-standing questions on the state of crypto assets. It will also properly define the regulatory jurisdiction of federal agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Progress from the House could benefit Ripple, which has sought to MOVE on from nearly a five-year-long legal battle with the SEC. Following a change in SEC leadership with the appointment of new Chair Paul Atkins, both parties filed a joint motion to close the case and reduce Ripple's $125 million civil penalty from an earlier ruling by Judge Analisa Torres at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. However, Judge Torres denied the motion, stating that the parties lack the authority to overrule a court judgment based on a private agreement.
She clarified that Ripple and the SEC could decide to withdraw or press forward with their current appeals. Ripple proceeded to withdraw its cross-appeal against the SEC, with the regulator expected to follow suit.
XRP is changing hands at $2.26, down 0.7% over the past 24 hours at the time of publication.
