Ripple CEO Garlinghouse says XRP outperformed major cryptos, focuses on long-term growth despite Bitcoin's recent price dip.

Ripple's $1.25B acquisition of Hidden Road shows confidence amid improving U.S. crypto regulations, says Garlinghouse.

In a recent interview with Liz Claman on The Claman Countdown, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse discussed the latest developments in the cryptocurrency market, including Bitcoin’s recent price decline and Ripple’s latest strategic move.

Claman noted that Bitcoin, which soared to a high of $107,000 following the election, has since dropped to around $86,000. She asked Garlinghouse about the market’s future and where he sees prices heading, especially amid wildly different predictions — from $250,000 per Bitcoin to much lower forecasts.

Garlinghouse emphasized the importance of a long-term perspective.

“I don’t think about it in short-term timeframes. I think about the macro trends in crypto and the XRP ecosystem,” he said. “XRP has been the best-performing major crypto over the last 90 days. We’re focused on where the industry will be in three years, not the next six months.”

He also discussed Ripple’s recent $1.25 billion acquisition of Prime Broker Hidden Road — the largest in the company’s history and reportedly the biggest in the crypto industry to date. Garlinghouse explained that such a move wouldn’t have been possible a year ago due to what he described as a “coordinated attack” on the industry by the U.S. government.

This included, according to Garlinghouse, “the IRS making up new rules, the banking regulators discouraging banks from working with crypto companies, and the SEC trying to rewrite the securities laws of the 1930s to apply them to crypto.”

However, he said that the regulatory landscape is starting to improve, making acquisitions like this one make more sense now.

“We’re seeing a more rational approach to crypto regulation in the U.S.,” Garlinghouse said.

Pro-XRP attorney John Deaton also praised the interview on social media.