Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse Concerned About Effects of Facebook's Libra

Published at: July 25, 2019

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of blockchain and crypto firm Ripple, is concerned about potentially stricter regulation for the digital currency industry that could result from Facebook’s not-yet-issued Libra stablecoin. Garlinghouse delivered his comments in an interview with Fortune on July 25.

Garlinghouse said, "You just want to make sure that you don't get caught in the crossfire. It is important to me that when regulators start asking questions that they don't lump us into one big bucket."

Libra helped XRP increase the number of contracts

However, in an interview at Fortune Brainstorm Finance conference in June, Garlinghouse said that a cryptocurrency launch by a social media giant like Facebook helped legitimize cryptocurrency-based products and boosted a record number of financial institutions to sign contracts to start using Ripple’s digital currency XRP for cross-border payments.

That same month, Garlinghouse argued that Bitcoin (BTC) and XRP are not competitors. Garlinghouse outlined the key difference of two major cryptocurrencies, stating that Bitcoin is a store of value or digital gold, while XRP is a bridge currency that enables an efficient solution for fiat-to-fiat transfers.

While the world’s governments are expressing concern about an international tech conglomerate issuing a digital currency that could theoretically see more use than government currencies, Libra has created a stir in the cryptocurrency community as well.

Jenny Shaver, the COO at Colorado-based crypto loans firm Salt, told Cointelegraph that the Libra hearings have shown that the crypto sphere needs to have more consistency across the industry and that it should be proactive in representing its interests:

“The industry has been lacking a consistent set of rules to abide by, and for the long-term development of the industry, we need to shape that structure with regulators. It is important now to put our best people in the industry forward to represent us. As a next step we should divert more resources towards lobbying, and building strategic PR and communication programs to educate all stakeholders and help remove unwarranted stigmas.”

 

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