Ripple forms new lobbying group seeking regulatory oversight after successfully influencing Federal Reserve's Faster Payment task force

A new cryptocurrency lobbying group called Securing America's Internet of Value Coalition (SAIV) will soon be lobbying Congress. The companies behind this advocacy group are all connected to the group's head, Ripple, and include Coil, Hard Yaka, and PolySign.

Through its lobbying, SAIV will be seeking to increase government oversight rather than promoting the freedom of cryptocurrency markets. Why? The same reason all large corporations seek oversight: regulatory laws can provide a barrier to entry to smaller competitors. And when that oversight is implemented by friendly revolving-door staffers, the resulting regulations are unlikely to constrain or penalize the company or companies seeking such oversight.

SAIV has hired the lobbying firm of Klein/Johnson Group, which will be paid in both USD and XRP, Ripple's crypto coin. Other lobbying issues will likely include SEC determinations on whether Ripple's XRP constitutes a security. In June of this year, the SEC ruled that neither Bitcoin nor Ether were securities and therefore were not subject to SEC rules, but the status of XRP has yet to be determined.

These lobbying efforts won't represent Ripple's first attempt to influence fintech policy. In July of 2017, Ripple's Ryan Zagone published a blog post on the company website announcing that the Federal Reserve (the United States' central bank) had released its Faster Payments Task Force action plan. In a happy coincidence for Ripple, Zagone was also a member of the Task Force's steering committee, advising the Federal Reserve on modernizing the US payments infrastructure. Not surprisingly, Ripple's Interledger proposal was well received by the Federal Reserve's assessment.

“It has been a tremendous honor to participate in the Task Force and serve on the Steering Committee,” Zagone wrote. “Ripple would like to extend a sincere thanks to the Federal Reserve for supporting this effort...”

Note that the Federal Reserve is not technically considered a part of the federal government, but its influence on government financial regulations warrants its inclusion on this venn.

DIT = Department for International Trade
CSAB = Cyber Security Advisory Board
NEC = National Economic Council
FPTK = Faster Payments Task Force