Ripple's David Schwartz Denies Secret XRP Plan as Price Slides Over 50% in a Year

David Schwartz Replies to Angry Holders

Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz has told frustrated XRP holders on X that the company has no hidden agenda for the token, rejecting calls for him or chief executive Brad Garlinghouse to reveal what one user described as “the real plan.” His replies, posted on Monday, November 9, followed a year in which XRP has lost more than half of its value, and they met the anger head on: Ripple talks about its plans constantly, Schwartz wrote, and “there’s no secret plan we aren’t telling you about.” The sharper exchange concerned what actually moves the XRP price. Another user asked why the token would not climb if Ripple rolled its ledger out worldwide alongside the RLUSD stablecoin. Schwartz answered that XRP’s price is “largely dragged around by the market,” with developments specific to the XRP Ledger playing only a secondary role, a pattern he said holds in spot trading as much as anywhere else. In the same thread, he pointed back to a 2023 post in which he called that judgment a personal sense rather than something he could prove. Liquidity drew a blunter reply. Asked whether XRP needs a higher price to provide liquidity across the ledger, Schwartz agreed, writing that “the higher the price, the better,” since a richer token makes liquidity cheaper for a market maker to supply and cuts slippage. A third user argued Ripple should find a heavier use for XRP than paying network fees. Schwartz responded that no knowledgeable person has suggested the token’s role as gas would significantly drive its price, and pointed instead to XRP’s “privileged place on the ledger” as the only asset anyone can hold without a counterparty. He added that it is hard to believe the world ends up with a successful XRP Ledger while XRP fails to capture a good fraction of that value.

@JoelKatz · X post

The same thread.

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Ripple's Euro Stablecoin Push Reaches 37 Banks

The corporate machine around the token keeps expanding, which is exactly what irritates holders who see none of it in the chart. Ripple said euro stablecoin supply has grown from roughly €50 million to €450 million since early 2024, and Qivalis, a consortium of 37 European banks now authorized by the Dutch central bank, plans to issue a euro stablecoin of its own. Authorization by the Dutch central bank places the consortium under a euro area supervisor, a sign the project is past the concept stage. In a post on X, the company argued that issuance is only part of the picture: each bank still needs the custody, governance and controls to hold the asset for clients, and BBVA and DZ BANK already run its Ripple Custody service for that purpose, a tier of infrastructure above the self-managed crypto wallet a retail holder keeps. Banks across Europe, in Ripple’s telling, are building stablecoin infrastructure at scale, and the climb from €50 million to €450 million over less than two years is the market’s answer so far. A bank-issued euro stablecoin would compete for the settlement volume Ripple’s payments business courts, putting the company on both sides of the trade. Ripple has also banked two milestones that Schwartz’s critics rarely weigh: a national trust bank charter and an investment-grade rating for RLUSD. Garlinghouse, for his part, recently rejected rumors that Ripple is quietly swapping XRP for its own stablecoin, a fear that resurfaces every time RLUSD gains ground. The buildout has not been friction-free either: Marc Asch's departure from Ripple Prime, the XRP-linked brokerage Ripple bought for $1.25B, rounds out the picture.

@Ripple · X post

The company argued.

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Corporate Wins, Token Lag

The two threads are one story: Schwartz is telling the community that Ripple’s corporate wins do not mechanically lift the token, and the European expansion shows those wins accruing to RLUSD and custody rails rather than to XRP itself. Market data puts XRP down about 4.3% over the past 24 hours, extending a slide our XRP technical analysis has followed through the year, including the $1.05 support test after October’s hot CPI print. Leverage had already run hot this year, with the XRP funding rate on Binance touching 0.18%, its highest in a year, during recent sessions. The token’s full yearly arc is collected under our XRP tag. Until ledger success starts showing up in token value, expect the gap between Ripple’s milestones and XRP’s price to keep feeding the frustration Schwartz spent Monday answering.