Bitcoin made news this morning when it shot up over $10,000 again for the first time in well over a week, but how are altcoins like Ripple’s XRP doing?
XRP Is Heading Into Oblivion
Bitcoin, at press time has moved past $10,700. This is the highest it’s been in several weeks, and many believe the spike has something to do with the VanEck Solid X Bitcoin Trust, which according to recent reports, is about ready to start releasing shares to institutional players.
This has been a long-time coming; the trust has experienced delay after delay, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has appeared practically frightened of making any decision regarding the trust. After a lengthy period of inactivity, it seems that the trust is finally here and ready to get moving.
At the same time, XRP – the official cryptocurrency of Ripple – hasn’t managed to do anything similar. The coin is trading at a particularly low point given how angry some investors are that the company, Ripple, is selling XRP units in the name of funding various other ventures. At press time, XRP has risen roughly two percent.
One Twitter user recently commented on the circumstances surrounding the token, claiming:
I’m thinking about forking XRP, so we don’t have to deal with the founders dumping. This will be a community effort. [Ripple chief executive] Brad Garlinghouse, [and Ripple chief technology officer] Joel Katz, you now have 60 days to stop dumping XRP or we will stage a community takeover. If it’s a decentralized network like you say, we have the power to do it.
Ripple has stirred quite a bit of controversy in the financial space given that it’s a far more centralized coin. While executives claim that it possesses decentralized properties, the company still owns more than 50 percent of all XRP units, which goes against the basic nature of a decentralized cryptocurrency. Many have since entered a lawsuit against Ripple for potentially lying to investors and offering an unregistered security.
Since the beginning of the year, Ripple’s price has fallen around 25 percent, a huge difference to how bitcoin has been doing. Garlinghouse has ultimately defending XRP and Ripple’s decision-making processes, stating:
Reality is, we decreased our sales by volume quarter on quarter and since then the inflation rate of XRP circulating supply has been lower than that of bitcoin and ether.
People Want This to Stop
A petition has since emerged asking Ripple executives to stop dumping XRP. It has thus far garnered over 3,000 signatures and reads:
Ripple continues dumping billions of XRP on us, crashing the price. It’s amazing this sort of behavior is widely accepted in the crypto world. Sure, we know that XRP is a solid coin with major potential, but this needs to stop!
