Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse acknowledged that his company should have engaged with United States regulators sooner and said that now both they and the crypto industry are trying to recover after being targeted by regulatory sanctions.

“The number of trips I have made to DC in the last few years has been much greater than in previous years,” Garlinghouse said at an event at DC Fintech Week on October 23.

“Looking back, I regret it. “I think we made a mistake in not stepping in sooner and we’re trying to make up for lost time to some extent.”

Ripple is one of the US crypto firms embroiled in a legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with many US crypto executives arguing that the regulator has been hostile and unfair towards the industry.

Earlier this year, the SEC scored a partial victory in its long-running lawsuit against Ripple after a judge ruled that the XRP token had been sold as an unregistered security to institutional buyers.

It was stated that XRP was not considered a security when sold to retail investors on crypto exchanges, but the SEC appealed this claim to a higher court earlier this month and Ripple also plans to oppose it.

Garlinghouse told the crowd in Washington, D.C. that the US is “falling behind” on crypto regulations compared to other countries.

He criticized SEC Chairman Gary Gensler for his “dominion of fear” over the industry and accused Senator Elizabeth Warren of “spreading misinformation” about crypto. He added that part of “standing out” is “just education” and showing that there are “serious people doing serious work” in the crypto space:

“When Sam Bankman-Fried showed up at Congress in cargo shorts and sold exactly what he represented, it hit the industry and Ripple hard.” he said.

He also noted that Ripple is “very active” in political donations. The company donated almost $50 million to the crypto-friendly FairShake PAC this election cycle; This PAC supports both Republican and Democratic candidates.

On October 21, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen said he donated $10 million to a PAC supporting Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

In an interview on Bloomberg Television the same day, Garlinghouse stated that it was “inevitable” that XRP would be offered as a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US.

He said the more than $21 billion that has flowed into spot Bitcoin ETFs since January “clearly demonstrates that there is demand from institutions and retail investors for access to this asset class.”

“Interest in XRP has increased,” Garlinghouse said, noting that two or three ETF applications for XRP have been made. “In my opinion, it is inevitable that you will see not only Bitcoin and Ether, but also the XRP ETF,” he said. So far, asset managers Bitwise and Canary Capital have filed spot XRP ETFs with the SEC.

Garlinghouse claimed that an XRP fund would “do very well” and that the cryptocurrency has a “very interesting and active community” both in the US and abroad.

He also added that crypto ETFs are part of a trend of “more institutional participation” in the crypto industry.

“I think we’ll continue to see that,” he said. “I believe this is putting upward pressure on the prices of many different cryptocurrencies, especially XRP.”