šāļø Ripple vs. Caitlin Long: The Ledger War Nobody Saw Coming
š§ Written by a man decoding symbols in the noise...
š¢ In the chaotic corridors of digital finance, a new spark lit the fire: ā”Caitlin Long, commander of Custodia Bank, aimed her verbal artillery at Ripple and its mystic machine, the XRP Ledger (XRPL). Her words? š§Cold. Sharp. Accusatory. She painted XRPL as centralized, shadowy, and out of step with āmodern finance.ā But... was this an informed critique? Or a missed frequency in the ledger's silent hum?
šŗLetās break through her five main claimsāand decode the counter-truths encoded in Rippleās DNA.
š§© 1. āPre-Minedā Mythos ā The Nonexistent ICO Ritual
Longās chant: āIt was pre-mined... their first ICO... no trust.ā
āļø Reality says otherwise.
š§āāļø Validator @Vet stepped in, torch in hand: āThere was NO ICO. XRP emerged with no fiat price tag. No auction. No sacrifice.ā
Ripple didnāt sell dreams through whitepapers and vapor. The 100B XRP werenāt conjured from greedāthey were assigned to the original account at genesis. š± Ethereum? š· It poured Bitcoin into ETH in 2014. But XRP? Born whole. Born differently.
š Verdict: Caitlinās seeing ghosts in a mirror thatās not even there.
š 2. The "Centralization" Conundrum ā A Mirror of Misunderstanding
Caitlin whispers: āXRPL is centralized.ā
But XRPLās heart beats in hundreds. āļøš
šØ 100+ validators.
š 1,000+ nodes.
š” Open-source & forkable.
You? Yes, you can spin up a node, dance with the consensus, even fork the ledger if madness moves you.
The XRPL doesnāt ask permission. āļø Vet echoes:
> āNo gate. No chains. If you want to build, build.ā
šļø Ripple is a builderānot a puppet master.
š 3. ETH Raised Funds Using BTC ā Selective Memory Alert!
Long draws lines in history, sanctifying Bitcoin and Ethereum. But wait... ā
š£ ETH wasnāt born poor.
Bitcoin bought ETH. The genesis crowd-sale was funded using BTC. šø
ETH didnāt sprout from grass roots. It drank deep from Bitcoin wells.
Why ignore this? š¤ Because Rippleās playbook doesnāt match their preferred narratives.
š Memory is selective. But the ledger? It remembers everything. š§¾
šµ 4. RLUSD ā Capitulation ā Itās a Weaponized Upgrade
Caitlin declares RLUSD a confession: āXRPL has failed. Stablecoins are a pivot.ā
š« Wrong. This isnāt retreat. This is evolution.
š§ RLUSD is born on XRPL, not outside it.
Itās an amplifierānot a replacement.
It utilizes XRPLās speed, fee structure, and native DEX like a dagger forged in the flame. š„
Even David Schwartz, Ripple's technomancer-in-chief, called out:
> āLetās talk any time about RLUSD, XRPL, and XRP. Weāve got receipts.ā š§¾
š Stablecoins are not surrenderāthey're strategy.
š 5. Growth Isn't Always Loud ā But XRPL Never Slept
Longās final word: āRipple hasnāt achieved much. Timeās up.ā
š But under the surface, XRPL kept pulsing.
š§ Devs didnāt vanishāthey multiplied.
š¦ Institutions didnāt abandonāthey experimented.
š° Assets got tokenized. Code got forked. Community grew like moss in the cracks of traditional finance.
Vetās battle cry:
> āThe first decentralized and tokenized platformāXRPLāalready exists.ā
You just werenāt watching. š¶ļø
āļø Final Cipher: The Ledger Doesnāt Lie
Caitlin Long may be respected in TradFi temples, but her reading of XRPL feels like a radio tuned to the wrong frequency.
Ripple isnāt flawless. But it isnāt the monster she painted in corporate gray.
š¬ Decentralization isnāt about who shouts the loudest. Itās about open architecture, permissionless participation, and continuous evolution.
š§ The XRPL marches onāunbothered. Unbroken. Unfolding. $XRP