Ripple's Brad Garlinghouse wants Bitcoin to succeed after all

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse may be a critic of Bitcoin, but he still wants the original cryptocurrency to succeed in the long run.

"I don't view what Ripple is doing as somehow competitive with Bitcoin. I want Bitcoin to be successful."

He implied that, during the next bull market, a Bitcoin rally bodes well for other cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin has a large gravitational pull on other digital assets, including XRP, due to its sheer market dominance and wider appeal among investors.

At last check, Bitcoin's dominance rate was 66.2%, meaning two-thirds of the total crypto market cap was held in BTC. During the peak of the altcoin boom in January 2018, Bitcoin's dominance rate fell to a low of around 32.8%, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Bitcoin dominance has risen steadily over the past six weeks following a series of major price jumps.

Garlinghouse's positive outlook on Bitcoin comes less than two weeks after the Ripple executive warned corporations against holding the digital currency.

In a Nov. 9 tweet, Garlinghouse implied that buying Bitcoin wasn't a good way to cozy up to the incoming Biden administration, which has taken a stronger stance on environmental protection.

Bitcoin's resource-draining proof-of-work consensus is said to be damaging to the environment.

For companies like Square and MicroStrategy, who converted a portion of their balance sheet into Bitcoin, that could mean additional reporting requirements.