Ripple CEO to Testify at Landmark Crypto Hearing on U.S. Regulation

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse is set to testify before the U.S. Congress as part of a landmark hearing on the market structure of digital assets. The hearing, scheduled for next week, will feature several key industry figures and is expected to significantly influence future crypto legislation in the United States. The session, which will take place on Wednesday at 10:00 AM ET, is anticipated to be a pivotal moment in the regulatory landscape of cryptocurrencies.

The hearing will focus on the CLARITY Act, a bill aimed at defining how digital assets are classified and regulated. This legislation seeks to create a regulatory framework that separates digital commodities from securities, an issue that has long divided the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The GENIUS Act, which focuses on establishing national innovation for U.S. stablecoins, is also moving toward a potential vote in the House. If passed, the GENIUS Act would proceed to the President's desk for signing, while the CLARITY Act would move to Senate deliberation.

Industry insiders suggest that both bills are foundational to the future of U.S. crypto regulation, particularly after a period dominated by enforcement-led actions from federal agencies. Republican lawmakers are pushing for greater legal certainty, especially in defining what counts as a decentralized protocol and how open-source developers should be treated under federal law. The hearing will include testimonies from Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple; Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association; Jonathan Levin, CEO of Chainalysis; and Dan Robinson, General Partner at Paradigm. Each of these figures brings a unique perspective to the table, from Ripple’s regulatory battles with the SEC to Chainalysis’s role in blockchain forensics and Paradigm’s focus on decentralized finance (DeFi) innovation.

Amidst the legislative preparations, the case of Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash, is drawing significant attention. Storm is facing federal charges for his role in building the privacy protocol and recently broke his silence ahead of his federal trial. In an interview, Storm highlighted the mounting pressure on open-source developers, arguing that the criminalization of open-source code threatens innovation in the crypto industry. Storm, who emigrated from Russia at 19 and taught himself to code, insists that Tornado Cash was designed to be non-custodial, immutable, and without an off switch. He denies ever profiting from the platform or interacting with sanctioned entities.

Federal prosecutors allege that Tornado Cash facilitated money laundering activities tied to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, which reportedly used the protocol to obfuscate stolen funds. Storm contends that the case is part of a broader regulation-by-enforcement strategy under the Biden administration, one that could chill innovation in the open-source ecosystem. He also shared details of his arrest, recalling armed federal agents appearing in his backyard, and described the psychological toll of being “debanked” multiple times since the indictment. Storm’s legal team argues that writing and deploying code should not be criminalized if developers do not operate or maintain the system afterward.

This legal limbo is something Congress is increasingly pressed to address, particularly as developers look for guidance on liability and compliance. With the likes of the crypto builders behind Uniswap, Aave, and other projects pushing code that runs on decentralized networks, the line between code creator and financial services provider continues to blur. This week’s hearing could play a critical role in determining how far the government will go in holding protocol creators accountable. At the heart of the debate is a single question: Can software be considered a financial entity if it runs independently of its developers?