The topic of cryptocurrencies continues to make its way into the mainstream. Most recently, CNN featured Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of blockchain-fueled cross-border payments startup Ripple, to discuss a wide swath of issues related to the crypto market. Chief among the topics discussed was Garlinghouse’s company, Ripple, and its potential role in influencing the XRP price. XRP is the No. 3 cryptocurrency based on market cap and Ripple owns more than half of the supply.
The CNN host cited the XRP rivalries on social media, invoking Crypto Bitlord, a Twitter account that accuses Ripple of “dumping” XRP and “pushing supply out.” Garlinghouse put the kibosh on that theory, comparing Ripple’s ownership of XRP to that of crypto whales and bitcoin, saying:
Source: Twitter“Yes, Ripple owns a lot of XRP, we’re very interested in the success of XRP, but the accusations of us dumping, that’s not in our best interests to do that…We would never do that and in fact, we’ve taken steps to lock up most of the XRP we own in escrows so we can’t touch it.”
XRP took a beating in 2019, basically seeing its price slashed in half compared to 92% gains for bitcoin. Garlinghouse’s comments may be resonating with the XRP Army as the XRP price has advanced more than 9% in the last 24 hours. And while Ripple has been blamed for the lackluster performance of XRP in 2019, Garlinghouse is quick to disagree that the company has even an ounce of control over the price movement in the third-biggest cryptocurrency, saying:
Source: TradingView“Ripple can’t control the price of XRP any more than the whales can control the price of bitcoin.”
Garlinghouse also addressed the elephant in the room – volatility in the cryptocurrency space, saying that regardless of the asset class, investors will speculate. He maintains that the “long-term value” of any asset is tied to its use case. He used the opportunity to take a swipe at Facebook’s Libra coin, pointing out that “today, that’s just a white paper,” and adding: “It isn’t live, it hasn’t launched. The hype often gets ahead of reality in many technologies and I think that’s true in the crypto space as well.”
The Ripple chief remains long bitcoin and sees real utility with the leading cryptocurrency. Still, he is quick to point out the slow transaction times of roughly 12 minutes and costs of roughly USD 1 per transaction that plague BTC as a payments solution. XRP, on the other hand, is fast and cheap to use.
Ripple, meanwhile, recently cinched another deal that bolsters the use case of XRP, having partnered with internet monetization startup Coil for micro-payments. This partnership represents Ripple’s push into the consumer market, as it gives users the ability to make micro-payments with XRP for content. For instance, have you ever wanted to read a story on Financial Times but hit a paywall and don’t want to spring for a subscription? Garlinghouse suggests the Ripple/Coil venture makes it possible to pay a dime, a quarter or 50 cents in XRP to access the content.