The founding father of Messari, Ryan Selkis, has generated further controversy by branding XRP and Ripple as an obstruction to the pro-crypto agenda of the Trump government. His criticism emphasizes long-standing disputes within the digital currency space and concentrates on Ripple’s claimed centralizing behavior and large XRP holdings.
Selkis claims that these components go against the distributed character of cryptocurrencies and will compromise more general goals for the acceptance of blockchain technology.
Ripple’s Growing Market Cap Raises Questions
Amongst Selkis’s key concerns are XRP’s growing market value. He believes that the incontrovertible fact that Ripple’s value now compares to that of huge corporations like Salesforce and Bank of America might skew market opinions.
XRP is now greater than Salesforce and approaching BofA in market cap.
+ Top 30 US company.
+ Twice the worth of Uber.
+ Greater than Shopify, PayPal, and Microstrategy combined.
+ 5x the scale of Coinbase.Ripple’s crash and scandals will take down your complete crypto agenda in DC.
— Ryan Selkis (d/acc) 🇺🇸 (@twobitidiot) January 16, 2025
He says that this financial power makes it harder to match Bitcoin-focused principles with Washington’s cryptocurrency objective. Selkis cautions that this type of control could impede the administration’s intentions for more extensive blockchain innovation.
Centralization Vs. Decentralization
People often argue about Ripple’s role by way of the way it is structured. The spread of XRP is rather more tightly controlled than Bitcoin’s. Ripple Labs holds a great amount of it. Some people, including Selkis, say that this setup goes against the concept blockchain technology is autonomous. The centralization criticism remains to be a hot topic in public debate, although Ripple says its operations are essential for its ecosystem.
Impact On The Trump Crypto Agenda
Selkis also points out that Ripple’s growing influence could make Trump’s pro-crypto stance difficult. Considered fundamental principles of its economic policy, the federal government has focused on developing Blockchain technologies and Bitcoin. But Ripple’s predominance in some financial spheres may lead to conflict and divert attention from alternative distributed solutions. This begs the difficulty of how legislators might settle these disputes.
The explanation I’m a dick about Ripple isn’t because I care about XRP or its memecoin rally. I’m completely satisfied for the entire retail holders who’ve made bank.
My issue with them is that they aren’t content with just being billionaires, they lust for power.
But they aren’t good people.
— Ryan Selkis (d/acc) 🇺🇸 (@twobitidiot) January 16, 2025
In a separate post meant to be an explainer for his hostility against the corporate, Selkis claimed that the executives of Ripple are individuals who “lust for power,” presumably referring to chairman Chris Larsen and CEO Brad Garlinghouse.
“My issue with them [Ripple executives] is that they aren’t content with just being billionaires, they lust for power,” he contended.
The Road Ahead For Ripple And XRP
For its part, Ripple has at all times refuted claims that it compromises values related to cryptocurrencies. The corporate uses its partnerships with financial institutions and programs to enhance cross-border transactions as proof of its value. The crypto community remains to be debating whether Ripple represents a needed development or a step away from the unique blockchain aim.
The differences between Ripple’s approach and more broad crypto goals point to more essential questions regarding blockchain technology’s future. As XRP’s value rises, the challenge will likely be balancing encouragement of innovation and decentralization with one another.
Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView