Ripple co-founder: Biden administration ‘pushed crypto industry offshore’

On Sep 7, 2023

The crypto industry has moved to Singapore, Dubai, and London due to U.S. policies, Larsen rued.
Larsen also criticized the SEC chair Gary Gensler for going after crypto in the face of unclear rules.

Ripple [XRP] Labs co-founder and executive chairman Chris Larsen criticized the administration of President Joe Biden for pushing the crypto industry offshore. He said Biden administration “pretty much killed” San Francisco from being the “blockchain capital of the world.”

According to Larsen, as a result, the crypto industry is now flourishing in Singapore, Dubai, and London, because of their clear rules around crypto.

He lamented,

“We owned it and we don’t anymore because the Biden administration, for whatever reason, decided they wanted to push this industry offshore.”

Larsen made these remarks during an interview with Bloomberg’s Edward Ludlow on 7 September. The co-founder talked about a range of issues during the conversation, including crypto’s legal battle with the U.S. regulators, crypto ecosystem, regulations across the world, and more.

Regarding the U.S. crypto policy, Larsen commented,

“The U.S. screwed up here on crypto and blockchain policy. This is the beginning now through the courts, unfortunately instead of through regulators, to get that clarity and get us back in the game.”

Larsen lashes out at SEC chair Gary Gensler

The Ripple co-founder also took aim at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the partial court victory achieved by Ripple in July. He said that the SEC lost on every count that was important to the regulator.

Larsen didn’t miss commenting on the Grayscale-SEC case, either, in which the asset manager secured a favorable judgement recently. He underlined that the court “really admonished” the regulator, which is a rare occurrence.

The Ripple chair had some harsh words for the SEC chair Gary Gensler too. Larsen alleged that Gensler’s policy is “regulation by enforcement, urging,

“We should have clear rules from the legislatures, not through these unelected, power-hungry and really misplaced decision-makers that you see in Gary Gensler.”

London-based consultancy firm Henley & Partners recently published the “Crypto Wealth Report.” It also included a Crypto Adoption Index.

Singapore and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were ahead of the U.S. in public adoption of crypto.

Regarding innovation and technology, the United Kingdom (U.K.), Singapore, Switzerland, and the UAE topped the index. Singapore and the UAE are the most tax-friendly countries. The U.S. didn’t even make it to the top 10 countries in both of these latter indices.

The concerns of crypto entrepreneurs in the U.S. are therefore not unsubstantiated.