May 19, 2023: “Confusing” regulations in the U.S. will push more crypto companies to leave the U.S. as firms like Ripple look to hire and invest outside the country, the CEO of blockchain services company Ripple told in an exclusive interview.

“Europe has provided leadership, and countries like UAE, the growth you’re seeing even the U.K. and Singapore, they’re providing the clarity about how they will regulate these digital assets,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said Thursday.

“Frankly, it’s why you’re seeing entrepreneurship and investment flowing into other jurisdictions, and certainly, Europe has been a significant beneficiary of the confusion in the U.S.,” he added.

His comments come after the crypto company announced that it had bought Metaco, a Swiss crypto custody services company, at a time when U.S. regulators cracked down harshly on firms like Ripple and crypto exchange Coinbase.

The Metaco acquisition is anticipated to expand Ripple’s suite of products and permit it to access an attractive clientele that includes Citi and BNP Paribas.

“We think Metaco is a significant fit from where we’re trying to grow our customers today,” Garlinghouse stated.

The crypto company have threatened to leave the U.S. in a bid to send a signal to regulators that the place may miss out on a critical technological innovation.

XRP is the key cryptocurrency on the Ripple network. Ripple is fighting a lawsuit Securities and Exchange Commission of the U.S. The SEC accused Ripple, Garlinghouse and the firm’s co-founder Chris Larsen of breaching securities laws by selling XRP without initially registering it with the SEC.

In April, Coinbase is taking legal action against the SEC following months of silence from the regulator, which regards the crypto exchange’s July 2022 petition on whether the securities rule-making processes could be extended to the crypto industry.

The U.S. has accused Binance, the world’s significant crypto exchange, of violating compliance norms to solicit American customers.

When asked regarding the bankruptcy of the crypto giant FTX, Garlinghouse stated in the interview that “what happened in FTX is called a fraud” and “is not specific to crypto.”

It’s fair to express that the U.S. has made the norms of the road regarding the crypto industry possible. As you stated, the U.S. SEC has been at the forefront of that confusion,” Garlinghouse said.

“Unfortunately, that has encouraged firms such as Ripple to invest more past of the U.S.,” stated Garlinghouse, adding that 95% of Ripple’s customers are non-U.S. Most of Ripple, which hires this year, will be outside the U.S.