XRP Caught in the Crossfire: Neither Fraud nor Banking Revolution

Ripple is among the most controversial projects in the crypto space. While critics accuse the company of fraud, supporters see XRP as the future backbone of global payment systems. However, both narratives are exaggerated ^[1].

The criticism primarily focuses on centralization: Ripple still controls approximately 42 percent of all XRP tokens, which were fully pre-mined when the ledger was created in 2012. The consensus architecture also relies on validator lists maintained by Ripple rather than decentralized market incentives ^[1].

Nevertheless, the fraud accusation is unfounded: The XRP Ledger has been running stably for over a decade without protocol breaches or hidden token emissions ^[1].

At the same time, the expectation of replacing SWIFT does not align with reality either. While Ripple has built an impressive partner network, many institutions use the technology merely for messaging or compliance – without actively deploying XRP. The token does not play a significant role in global payment systems ^[1].

Following its partial legal victory against the SEC, XRP reached a market capitalization of 115 billion US dollars. However, since its July high, the price has lost nearly 50 percent – possibly a sign of more sober market valuation ^[1].