Ripple Appoints Legal Expert Who Previously Led the Token Taxonomy Act
- Ripple aims to enhance their position and approach towards U.S. legislators.
- Michelle Bond, Ripple’s Global Head of Government Relations, welcomed Hammond via her LinkedIn profile.
Ripple appointed former political adviser Ron Hammond to enhance their search for support efforts from Washington, D.C. lawmakers. Hammond announced his new role via tweet that was reposted by the blockchain payments provider.
Hammond’s previous experience includes being a legislative assistant for Rep. Warren Davidson. In this role, he actively drove the formulation of the “Token Taxonomy Act” – an effort to grant cryptocurrencies a more transparent legal status in the United States.
The proposal was first introduced by Reps. Davidson and Darren Soto during the previous year and was reintroduced in April 2019. It aims to relieve some cryptocurrencies and digital assets from federal securities laws. The 2019 version of the bill is co-sponsored by Reps. Josh Gottheimer, Tedd Budd, Scott Perry and Tulsi Gabbard.
Ripple’s Global Head of Government relations, Michelle Bond, gave a warm welcome to Hammond via her LinkedIn:
“Thrilled to announce Ron William Hammond as Ripple’s Government Relations Manager! Ron brings a wealth of legislative and policy experience – excited to have him on board as we continue to work closely with lawmakers, regulators, and partners worldwide!”
Ripple will definitely put to a good use Hammond’s familiarity with securities legislation as the U.S.-based company has been involved in a couple of lawsuits for selling unregistered securities with the XRP token which actually powers a Ripple banking payments product.
There were indications that soon the U.S. is going to shift to a sturdier stance towards crypto regulations. On that matter, Ripple aims to convince lawmakers not to repress innovations by piling all cryptocurrencies on the same level.
We all remember Ripple’s open letter to the Congress posted in July:
“We urge you to support regulation that does not disadvantage U.S. companies using these technologies to innovate responsibly, and classifies digital currencies in a way that recognizes their fundamental differences—not painting them with a broad brush.”
- A federal judge ruled that the sale of XRP through exchanges and algorithms did not qualify as selling securities, which could have a major impact on several SEC lawsuits.
- The institutional sale of the token, however, did violate federal securities laws, and the lawsuit between the SEC and Ripple will have to go to trial.
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- Crypto.com has once again expanded its regulatory achievements with the acquisition of a major payment institution license for digital payment token services in Singapore.
- The license, for which the company received an in-principle approval last June, enables the exchange to provide a greater range of payment services in Singapore.
- The current governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, announced he is joining the race for the 47th president of the U.S. during a Twitter Spaces event on Wednesday.
- During his speech DeSantis declared his support for Bitcoin and the wider crypto space, noting that if Joe Biden is re-elected “they’ll probably end up killing it”.