Ripple CTO Backs XRPL Amid Price Controversy

Key Notes

• David Schwartz praised XRPL’s low fees, public design, and growing tokenization.
• Repeated XRP transfers between exchanges indicating possible wash trading have surfaced.
• XRPL activity has dropped, with transactions down 38% and payments falling nearly 50% in a month.

Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer, David Schwartz, expressed confidence in the XRP Ledger’s long-term role in global finance amid surfacing allegations of XRP

XRP $3.10

24h volatility: 5.3%

Market cap: $184.60 B

Vol. 24h: $10.94 B

price manipulation within the crypto community.

Defending a 13-Year Track Record

Schwartz described the XRP Ledger (XRPL) as a proven foundation for payments and tokenized assets, noting its 13-year history of development, adoption, and institutional use.

He said that while many new players in payments and stablecoins are creating their own blockchains, building a lasting ecosystem with developer engagement, massive liquidity, and trust is a huge challenge than simply launching a network.

Robust Design and Good Features

According to Schwartz, XRPL’s public and permissionless design allows broad participation, offering optional features for regulated environments.

With low, predictable transaction fees and the ability to pay directly in XRP without relying on a separate gas token, Schwartz believes XRPL to be a contender in leading the blockchain-based payments sector.

The Ripple executive also confirmed plans to run a high-performance XRPL server to support validator operations. He clarified that this would be his own initiative rather than an official Ripple project.

Allegations of Price Manipulation Surface

XRPL is a strong ecosystem, but a validator operator called Grape reported unusual transactions that might be affecting XRP’s market value.

Monitoring transfers above 10,000 XRP, Grape reported frequent movements of more than 140,000 XRP between major exchanges such as Bitget and Binance.

These transactions, occurring within minutes of each other, were interpreted as possible wash trading, a tactic that can inflate perceived demand and distort prices.

On-Chain Metrics Tell a Mixed Story

XRP’s nearly 600% price surge since November to around $3.30, makes it a top crypto to buy. In fact, whales recently purchased 320 million XRP tokens over just three days, highlighting continued large-scale interest.

However, activity on the XRPL has been slowing despite the price increase.

Related article: Ripple to Expand RLUSD Stablecoin Use With $200 Million Rail Platform AcquisitionOver the past month, total transactions have dropped from 2.59 million to 1.59 million, a decline of 38%. Payments on the network have fallen even more sharply, down almost 50% to 835,000.

Data from DeFiLlama shows XRPL’s total value locked at just $90.57 million, with minimal revenue from applications and a market cap-to-TVL ratio of over 2,200x, a figure that far exceeds most major blockchains.

The substantial difference points to extreme speculation, raising questions over whether price levels can be sustained without stronger on-chain growth.

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