San Francisco-based Ripple has held regular talks with the Trump administration and things seem to be moving in the right direction, says Cory Johnson, the company’s Chief Market Strategist.

“The White House, in particular, seems to be thinking about what it means to have 80% of Bitcoin mining taking place in China as well as a majority of Ether mining,” he says. “When you look at XRP (Ripple), there is no mining, so from a foreign-control aspect or from an environmental aspect, XRP is a very different beast. And in conversations we’ve had with the (Trump) administration, they seem to get that and think that might matter.”

XRP price surges 10%

News of talks between Ripple and the US government caused a 10% surge in the price of XRP to about $0.460282. The bullish sentiment related to XRP spread to other cryptocurrencies as well.

“We’re in regular talks throughout Washington, and we meet with regulators as well as politicians,” Johnson claims. “We’ve got a whole team that’s devoted to doing that, not just in the US, but worldwide.”

He also addressed regulation and where he believes the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) currently stands in regards to cryptocurrency and whether it will decide if it is an asset or a security.

“I think it’s possible the answer is never. I don’t know that the SEC wants to be in a position to have to comment on every single cryptocurrency or digital asset created and issue a ruling about it,” he states. “I don’t know if they like what they did with Bitcoin and Ether.”

Johnson took the opportunity to clarify the difference between Ripple and XRP, noting that there is still widespread confusion.

“You can buy all the XRP in the world, but that doesn’t give you the right to a dime of Ripple’s profits,” he explains. “Ripple doesn’t control XRP. XRP is decentralised in a way that Ripple can’t control it, even if we wanted to.”