The Ripple CTO, David Schwartz, has addressed renewed criticism, suggesting that XRP valuation is driven purely by hype rather than real-world utility.
His detailed response came after X user and Chainlink proponent “Fishy Catfish” challenged XRP’s fundamentals and technological relevance.
On Chain Incentives: ‘Cheaper to Run Will Win’
Notably, the critic argued that other networks attract validators because they offer strong economic incentives, whereas XRP Ledger does not. Schwartz responded that this dynamic is intentional:
- XRPL deliberately minimizes the cost of running infrastructure.
- A low-overhead ledger is more likely to win in the long term.
- High-incentive systems require high user-paid fees, something he sees as a market disadvantage.
TVL, DEX Activity, and Market Cap Debates
“Fishy Catfish” also pointed to XRPL’s relatively low TVL and DEX volume, noting that it ranks around 50th by this metric, far below Solana and Ethereum. Yet XRP still sits among the top assets by market cap, which he attributed to “influencers and misinformation.”
Schwartz challenged the notion that more nodes or higher TVL automatically translate into a better blockchain. He noted that XRPL has no technical limitation preventing DEX activity. In other words, its usage levels are not a reflection of its capability.
On Ripple launching RLUSD primarily on Ethereum, he agreed that demand is still low on XRPL. Meanwhile, Schwartz believes token holders should care more about future utility than current usage.
“XRP Is a Meme Coin”
The critic labeled XRP a “meme coin” and compared it to Dogecoin on the basis that both serve as native tokens of their respective chains.
Schwartz replied that, under such criteria, virtually all cryptocurrencies would be meme coins. He highlighted that features like scarcity, reliability, fungibility, and censorship resistance form the true foundational value of crypto assets.
Speculation vs. Source of Value
The final accusation claimed that Schwartz “admitted” XRP gets its value purely from speculation, contradicting CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s long-held emphasis on utility.
Schwartz clarified that he did not mean XRP’s inherent value comes from speculation. Rather, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, its current price is largely driven by expectations of future speculative demand.
He noted that nearly all cryptocurrencies today have limited real-world utility differentiating them from one another, and that most adoption in the space is due to speculation or infrastructure supporting speculative activity.
In other words, speculation influences today’s prices, but not necessarily an asset’s long-term value proposition.
“It’s very difficult to distinguish today’s cryptocurrencies based on current utility. Nearly every successful use case today revolves around speculation or supporting speculative activity,” the Ripple CTO said.
Ultimately, Schwartz argued that while technology and adoption are important, price discovery in crypto remains overwhelmingly shaped by expectations of what’s next.
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