Senator Cynthia Lummis' son-in-law is not a fan of Ripple originally appeared on TheStreet .
Brad Garlinghouse, the billionaire CEO of the blockchain and payments firm Ripple, recently decried Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) cancelling a meeting with him.
As previously reported , Garlinghouse claimed on May 19 that Sen. Lummis — who chairs the Digital Assets Subcommittee — cancelled a meeting with him, which she won't reschedule.
Even though President Donald Trump has included XRP among the cryptocurrencies that will make up the U.S. digital assets stockpile, Sen. Lummis is a Bitcoin maximalist. In fact, the BITCOIN Act introduced by Lummis aims to legislate Trump's executive order to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
However, it seems there is more to the senator reportedly cancelling the meeting than meets the eye.
Sen. Lummis's son-in-law, Will Cole, is also a Bitcoin maximalist like her. Not only that, he frequently criticizes Ripple, underlined a popular crypto account on X called Cowboy.Crypto.
The user pointed out to Garlinghouse that Cole has been sharing Catholic Bitcoin CEO Pierre Rochard's posts criticizing Ripple for the company's alleged anti-Bitcoin and pro-CBDC stances.
Garlinghouse responded to the post , saying it was "enlightening" to know that Cole is related to Sen. Lummis. "I really have to wonder if this was Sen. Lummis or someone on her staff making this decision," he added.
Crypto lawyer Bill Morgan also shared screenshots of Cole's posts from 2021 and 2022 criticizing Ripple and XRP for its alleged centralized model.
Bitcoin vs. XRP battle
Bitcoin vs. XRP discourse isn't new.
While the former is the largest cryptocurrency, the latter is the fourth-largest cryptocurrency.
While Ripple is criticized for its centralized leadership , Bitcoin is criticized for its adverse environmental impact.
In 2023, a Canadian artist Benjamin Von Wong teamed up with Greenpeace USA to create an art installation called the "Skull of Satoshi" to raise awareness about Bitcoin's energy usage.
Guess who else turned up to support the initiative? Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen.
Though the Bitcoin community embraced the installation soon enough, the Ripple CEO recently made an effort to bridge the gap between different crypto communities by donating the installation to the community.
BTC, XRP, and other crypto communities have "more in common than we think," Garlinghouse said.
Political overtures to the discourse
There is a political overture to the Bitcoin vs. XRP discourse as well.
Ripple has made significant political donations to Trump — including the firm's chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty personally donating $300,000 in XRP to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and Ripple Labs donating $5 million in XRP to his inaugural committee.
Ripple, which had been battling a years-long securities violations case with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), saw the regulator attempting to settle with it following Trump's election victory.
But the Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris's campaign also found support at Ripple. Co-founder Chris Larsen donated $10 million worth of XRP to Harris during the campaign.
It is, however, not uncommon for companies to make donations to both parties during election campaigns.
Since Trump's inauguration, XRP has declined 25% in value to trade at $2.20 at press time, as per Kraken .
Though Bitcoin's value has declined 4% since Trump's inauguration, his coming to power has only led to the king coin's surge. BTC first hit its record high of $109,241 on Jan. 20, ahead of his inauguration ceremony. It then recently hit another record high of $111,970.17 on May 22. As per Kraken , it was trading at $104,759.32 at press time.
Senator Cynthia Lummis' son-in-law is not a fan of Ripple first appeared on TheStreet on May 30, 2025
This story was originally reported by TheStreet on May 30, 2025, where it first appeared.