XRP: A Bold Claim of Financial Scam

A cryptocurrency researcher has made a controversial assertion, labeling XRP as the ‘biggest financial scam the world has ever seen’.

The analyst, Aylo, who identifies as an alpha please researcher, posted this statement on March 21. At that time, the XRP ledger’s 24-hour decentralized exchange (DEX) volume was merely $44,036, while the total value locked (TVL) was reported to be $80.63 million, based on data from DeFiLlama.

> “I think XRP is the biggest financial scam the world has ever seen. There has never been something which has produced less value that has reached this market cap ($140B). The XRP ledger did $44k in volume in the last 24h, according to DeFiLlama.”

Assessing the Claim

Although the XRP ledger’s DEX volume is considerably lower compared to many rivals, this does not necessarily classify XRP as a financial scam and can be rationalized.

The Purpose of XRP

XRP is not crafted to thrive in the DeFi space; its main objective is to ensure rapid and cost-efficient cross-border payments and act as a bridge currency for financial institutions. This goal renders TVL an unsuitable metric for evaluating XRP’s success.

Distinctively, unlike Ethereum (ETH) or Binance Smart Chain (BSC), which heavily feature smart contracts and DeFi applications, the XRP Ledger (XRPL) emphasizes speed and scalability over programmable functionalities that typically inflate TVL figures.

Moreover, XRPL does not depend significantly on binding assets in smart contracts for staking or yield farming, practices that usually boost TVL.

Instead, the value of XRP is in its capability to facilitate quick value transfers globally, largely negating the need for extended asset lock-up periods. Consequently, TVL inadequately reflects the fundamental aspects of XRP’s adoption or its tangible impact.

As it stands, XRP is approximately $2 billion in market cap away from surpassing Tether (USDT) as the third-largest digital asset globally, having increased its market cap by $100 billion in the past year. It also recorded a robust trading volume, with approximately $2.58 billion worth of XRP traded in the last 24 hours, according to Finbold’s data from CoinMarketCap.

Currently, XRP is priced at $2.44, showing a 17.03% return on a year-to-date (YTD) basis, despite a substantial pullback following an upward movement after the resolution of Ripple’s lengthy lawsuit with the SEC.

Increasingly bullish sentiments towards XRP are emerging among analysts. Bitget analyst Ryan Lee suggests that if the token can maintain prices above $2.50, a rally to $10 could be on the horizon.

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