CEO Brad Garlinghouse says in what was poised to be a challenging year, Ripple exceeded his expectations for 2020. "We aren’t going to grow as fast this year as we thought. However, we’re still getting two production financial contracts a week," he said.Indeed, the digital asset and payment system has seen some days this year in which XRP liquidity on Bitso exceeded BTC. But still, an opaque regulatory atmosphere has kept Ripple from reaching its potential, Garlinghouse argued in an interview with The Scoop's Frank Chaparro.According to Garlinghouse, there isn't a "level playing field" for all digital assets in this regulatory climate."Bitcoin was the only one with the hall pass," he said.This creates an atmosphere in which assets without clarity underperform, according to Garlinghouse.On this week's episode, Garlinghouse discussed how Ripple is "fighting with one hand tied behind our back," as well as: Why big banks aren't partnering with Ripple, but smaller banks are interested The ways regulatory clarity has benefited bitcoin but not other digital assets, and why the lack of clarity impedes Ripple's growth Why Ripple is currently not planning a blockchain initial public offering (IPO) How central banks are looking into XRP-based ledgers.