Crypto-backed super PAC Fairshake likely wouldn't exist if not for SEC Chair Gensler's actions, Ripple CEO says
Fairshake, the major crypto-funded super PAC in the 2024 election, likely wouldn't have been started if not for the actions of Securities Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse told 60 Minutes in an interview scheduled to air this Sunday.
Gensler, who will step down from his post on Jan. 20, led the federal government's crackdown on the crypto industry. Gensler's SEC filed more than 120 lawsuits against crypto companies.
Garlinghouse said the SEC's approach to crypto led Ripple and other crypto companies to launch Fairshake, the industry's biggest super PAC, in 2023.
"People are like, "Why did these companies come together and organize and say, 'This matters'?" Garlinghouse said. "And it's a reaction to a war on crypto."
"So if there had been a different SEC chair than Gary Gensler…" said "Face the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan to Garlinghouse.
"I'm not sure Fairshake would exist," Garlinghouse said.
Brennan replied, "Really?"
"I'm…absolutely," Garlinghouse said.
The SEC sued Ripple in December of 2020 at the tail end of the Trump administration — before Gensler was chair — alleging that its sale of the cryptocurrency XRP represented the sale of an unregistered security. Garlinghouse said Ripple has spent more than $150 million fighting the SEC in court, arguing that the digital currency XRP shouldn't be subject to the agency's registration and disclosure requirements as if it were a stock offering.
In response to Garlinghouse's comments to 60 Minutes, an SEC spokesman said, "Any amount spent by the crypto industry on legal defense or influence peddling pales in comparison to the savings lost by crypto investors to frauds and failures."
The full story on cryptocurrency will air this Sunday on 60 Minutes at 7 p.m. ET on CBS stations.
