XRP, the No. 3 cryptocurrency based on market cap, has shaved 48% off its value in 2019, leaving it difficult to defend the digital asset, even for Ripple, which owns the lion’s share of the digital asset.  Ripple CTO David Schwartz has defended the blockchain startup from its XRP holdings, saying in a Twitter thread turned ugly that the company’s unloading of XRP has been “negligible.”

“We were vc/angel funded and were going to build regardless. We started selling XRP only after there was a market price and for negligible amounts compared to our other funding.”

The tweetstorm erupted after Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd compared XRP to ICO tokens, saying it “doesn’t need to exist and gives you no real rights to anything. It’s purpose is to make Ripple money, by selling it to suckers.” In response, Schwartz stuck to the script that the company is venture backed.

Ripple Attracts $200 Million to Its Coffers

A Dec. 20 report revealed that Ripple had raised $200 million in a Series C round to bolster the adoption of XRP. According to reports, the blockchain startup now has a valuation of $10 billion attached, making it the No. 2 most valuable company in the space, second only to bitcoin mining giant Bitmain.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse is quoted as saying:

“We are in a strong financial position to execute against our vision. As others in the blockchain space have slowed their growth or even shut down, we have accelerated our momentum and industry leadership throughout 2019.”

Still, Ripple and XRP remain a contentious topic in Crypto Land, and the sharp declines in the cryptocurrency used to power Ripple’s cross-border payment products might have something to do with it.

XRP has a way of bringing out the knives on Crypto Twitter, and Ripple CTO David Schwartz wasn’t the only one to find himself in the line of fire. Mati Greenspan, Founder of QuantumEconomics.io, also took some heat for addressing the elephant in the room – XRP’s precipitous fall from $0.37 in early 2019 to hover at $0.19 today. Greenspan suggests the issues are two-pronged, pointing to a one-two punch of 1.) “Ripple holding a large portion of tokens and selling into the rallies;” and 2.) “Usage of the network does not necessarily require XRP tokens. Banks can use Ripplenet w/out ever touching the token.” 

Greenspan went so far as to launch a poll on Twitter, asking his followers when the XRP price would hit $1 once again. While the poll is still active, the responses are so far leaning toward “Never” at 41%, followed by the year 2020 at 35.8% across 1,160 votes.

Of course, XRP isn’t the only altcoin that has been battered in 2019 as crypto investors lose faith in the return of alt season. Greenspan addressed this issue too, saying,

“We’re beyond crypto winter or summer or spring for that matter. This entire period is a great consolidation where the entire industry is returning back to Bitcoin. People are realizing that many of the altcoins had exaggerated valuations beyond what the projects were worth.”