Ripple CTO David Schwartz responded to accusations from published court documents alleging that Ripple paid six exchanges $1-5 million to list XRP.
Recent court documents in the Ripple v. SEC case allege that Ripple paid six exchanges between $1 million and $5 million to list XRP on the platforms. David Schwartz, CTO of Ripple, responded to these claims.
Schwartz’s clarification came at the end of a twitter thread from Scam Detective, an anonymous self-proclaimed sleuth.
Scam Detective mentioned that Ripple paid six exchanges between $1 million and $5 million in 2017 to list XRP.
Scam Detective has concluded that these allegations led to the dissolution of the Grayscale XRP Investment Trust in January 2021. The allegations also allege that Ripple has been in discussions with Coinbase for a listing of XRP for years.
Ripple CTO Responds
In response, Schwartz shed light on the complexity of the situation. He stressed that the allegations presented were just allegations and the real facts were complex.
Schwartz explained that the exchange may require a substantial XRP listing fee, which Ripple may choose not to pay initially.
However, if Ripple later discovers an opportunity to establish a valuable payment integration with that exchange, the company can pay for the integration, allowing them to use the exchange for ODL purposes and requiring XRP to be listed on the platform.
However, this payment will be intended to facilitate Ripple’s broader goal of expanding its on-demand liquidity (ODL) service, and not just listing XRP.
Schwartz explained that this is only a hypothetical situation. He emphasized that parties to a dispute tend to present accusations in the worst possible light, contradicting the facts. He cautioned against treating these allegations as facts and emphasized the need for a fair assessment.
As a reminder, accusations that Ripple paid exchanges like Coinbase to list XRP have surfaced in the past. Notably, last month Scam Detective asked Schwartz, how much Ripple paid Coinbase to list XRP, rekindling the age-old allegations that first surfaced in a 2018 Bloomberg article.
“The story of XRP listing on Coinbase is the one story I most wish I could tell but can’t.” Schwartz answered then.