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Ripple CTO David Schwartz has joined a heated debate after Custodia Bank CEO Caitlin Long criticized Ripple, the XRP Ledger (XRPL), and its stablecoin RLUSD in a podcast clip shared on X. Long questioned XRP’s decentralization, likened Ripple’s early funding to an ICO, and argued the blockchain had fallen short of its adoption goals among banks and other institutions. Her remarks drew quick pushback from XRP community member Vet, who disputed her claims, prompting Schwartz to invite Long to a direct, fact-based discussion.

Caitlin Long Criticizes Ripple And XRP

Caitlin Long, CEO of Custodia Bank, did not hold back in her view of Ripple and XRP in a recent episode of the Gold Goats ‘n Guns podcast. In her remarks in the podcast, Long noted that Ripple’s early funding model, which she described as the first of the ICOs, has permanently hindered institutional trust in XRP. She said Ripple had been active longer than most blockchain projects but had not made significant progress in replacing traditional banking systems like SWIFT. 

According to her, the company’s move to issue RLUSD through its own regulated financial entities is a notable pivot away from relying solely on the XRPL as a global settlement layer. Although she acknowledged that US regulatory pressure under the Biden administration had affected Ripple’s operations, she maintained that the base layer network was unlikely to become the backbone of international payments.

With this in mind, Long predicted that when the US Treasury eventually decides on a blockchain for tokenizing T-bills, it will most likely choose Ethereum over Ripple due to the former’s maturity and better adoption.

XRP Community And CTO Fire Back

Her comments prompted a detailed rebuttal from prominent XRP community member Vet, who dismissed Long’s claims as misinformed. As noted by Vet, Ripple never conducted an ICO, XRP was worthless when it was created, and all 100 billion tokens were created in a genesis account. Vet also defended the XRPL’s decentralization, pointing to over 1,000 nodes and more than 100 independent validators run by individuals and businesses worldwide. 

He noted that Ethereum, on the other hand, was launched via an ICO. In addition, Vet highlighted Ripple’s continued integration of the XRPL in its payment products and the fact that RLUSD is issued on the ledger. He cited growing business use cases, ongoing technical amendments, and the XRPL’s historic role as the first blockchain with a native decentralized exchange and tokenization capabilities.

Following Vet’s response, David Schwartz also took to X to directly address Caitlin Long’s claims. Although he noted that the community member had already provided “some basic ones” to start the factual discussion, the Ripple CTO invited Long to an open conversation about Ripple, RLUSD, the XRPL, and XRP. 

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

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