Ripple CEO Says Voters, Trump Defeated The ‘Anti-Crypto Army’

After years of regulatory pressure, Ripple’s CEO has affirmed that US President Donald Trump and voters have beaten the last administration’s broader, “nonsensical crackdown on the crypto industry.”

On Thursday, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse criticized the previous US administration’s anti-crypto campaign, which targeted the digital assets sector for years and pushed firms and investors abroad.

To Garlinghouse, the Biden administration’s crackdown on the industry “never made policy, legal or political sense.” Moreover, he affirmed that the efforts to combat financial innovation “only helped protect those that wanted to keep an old, often broken, system in place.”

Now, “America is now the CRYPTO CAPITAL of the WORLD, and Builders and Entrepreneurs are coming BACK to the United States where they belong,” Trump asserted, pledging to “future-proof” the digital asset market structure legislation under his leadership so that it “cannot be undone by the Crypto Haters.”

Other countries are trying diligently to replace us in that capacity, but we won’t let that happen. It is a major Industry, and we must protect it.

Over the past year and a half, US regulators have shifted from a “regulation by enforcement” strategy towards a more welcoming approach. On Wednesday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) joined Gemini in a motion for relief from the judgment in the January 2025 order against the exchange, which included a $5 million penalty.

Similarly, the SEC has dismissed multiple investigations and lawsuits against crypto firms, while calling the industry one of the top priorities in its shift toward a pro-innovation approach.

In the letter, Ripple asked the regulator to clarify the treatment of payment stablecoins, crypto asset non-securities, and tokenized securities under the recent net capital and customer protection rules. It also asked for potential next steps for broader guidance and applauded the Task Force and Commissioner Peirce for the “in-depth and engaging discussion.”