Ripple's changing narrative around the creation of $XRP

Ripple • November 25, 2018, 11:06AM EST
Published 1 hour earlier on
UPDATED: November 25, 2018, 10:45AM EST
The Block

$XRP is currently the second largest cryptocurrency with a $14.2 billion market cap as of 10am ET today. As a result, its provenance and development are closely watched by those both inside and outside of the crypto ecosystem. During the current downturn in crypto market prices, $XRP has been the best-performing large cap (> $500 million) cryptocurrency with a 30-day return of -23.9% and a 90-day return of +5.8% as of the time of writing.

As a result, the narrative of $XRP and of Ripple, the private company that is closely associated with the cryptocurrency and XRP protocol, is closely watched. That narrative has evolved significantly through the years. In 2013, Ripple claimed that "Ripple Labs created 100 billion XRP within the Ripple network, and that amount will never increase." In 2018, however, Ripple claimed that "Ripple the company didn’t create XRP; 100 billion XRP was created before the company was formed."

Clearly, both statements can't be true. And the truth of the respective statements has great implications for Ripple the company and $XRP the cryptocurrency in 2018. Recently, the SEC has taken increased action against cryptocurrencies for a range of reasons, with a key concern being "unregistered securities." Stephen Palley wrote that the SEC's recent actions imply that "tokens that fit within the Howey rubric are securities."

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In a series of tweets over the past few days, The Block's CEO Mike Dudas took a look at the relationship between $XRP and Ripple, the private company. He investigated the changing narrative about the creation of $XRP through the years. Dudas presented the firm claims by Ripple management in 2018 that they did not create $XRP and that $XRP is not a security. He then explored Ripple's historical actions with respect to $XRP within the framework of the Howey Test, which is currently being used to determine whether a cryptocurrency token is indeed a security or not.

You can read the full thread by clicking the embedded tweet below.

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About Author

Mike Dudas is one of the founders of The Block and was the CEO until April 2020 and a board member until April 2021. Prior to starting The Block, Mike was co-founder and CRO of Button, the leading global, mobile performance marketing platform. Mike is a builder of mobile commerce businesses, having worked at Google, Braintree/Venmo and PayPal. Early in his career, Mike worked in corporate M&A and strategy for Disney. Mike earned a BA from Stanford and an MBA from Kellogg.

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