Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of XRP’s parent company Ripple Labs, has come under intense fire following accusations of lobbying against the strategic Bitcoin reserve.
Brad Garlinghouse has long been perceived as anti-Bitcoin in the crypto community and allegedly sponsored a $5 million smear campaign against Bitcoin mining.
Key opinion leaders came out gun blazing when the rumor broke highlighting all the flaws with the XRP project while arguing that the project is nowhere at the same level as Bitcoin.
The tension in the community around XRP and Bitcoin follows Donald Trump’s signing an executive order launching a strategic crypto reserve a few days ago.
The development confused the community as the speculation has always been a Bitcoin Reserve and not the vague classification of a crypto reserve which doesn’t specify any asset.
Opinion leaders believe the vague classification of a crypto asset reserve from Trump’s desk is allegedly a result of anti-bitcoin lobbying.
They believe the lobbying comes from people like Brad Garlinghouse looking to turn public opinion against Bitcoin and position XRP as an American crypto company more worthy of the reserve.
The observation above has sparked a brutal backlash against XRP and its parent company Ripple Labs.
Reactions, Fury, and Heated Debates
The XRP situation has split the crypto community into two factions Pro Bitcoin and Pro XRP.
As it stands today, the Pro Bitcoin community seems to have the upper hand.
This faction is led by Bitcoin Maxis, armed with ample information and evidence of Bitcoin’s unique qualities.
They argue that Bitcoin is a far superior asset to XRP and the latter is a mere distraction from the former.
They believe XRP is a scam and does not follow the tenets of Web 3, which is decentralization.
Pierre Rochard, the VP of Research at Riot Platforms expressed his disgust at the comparison of Bitcoin to XRP. He wrote a series of tweets highlighting the gulf in class between the two crypto assets.
Forbes Contributor and Crypto Lawyer Irina B. Heaver had more extreme views on the XRP project. She believes that calling the project a scam is an understatement while reminding her audience that the XRP team lobbied to ban Bitcoin Proof of Work back in 2022.
In his defense, Brad Garinghouse reacted to some of these tweets explaining his position while denying the Anti Bitcoin claims.
XRP supporters argued that XRP is an update to Bitcoin and a product of former Bitcoin engineers.
The debates are still much on with no end in sight. XRP has surged by 25.2% in the last 14 days and is currently in a green zone for all time indicators.
Bitcoin, on the other hand, is up by 0.2% in the last 24 hours, exchanging hands for $104,747.
