In a video released on Thursday, cryptocurrency commentator Zach Rector dismissed a spreading claim—popularized by influencer Jake Clover—that XRP tokens are being secretly exchanged at $100,000 each inside "dark pools." Rector's rebuttal aims to soothe newcomers fearing this rumor and refocus the discussion on verifiable market mechanisms rather than conspiracy stories suppressing prices.

XRP OTC trading is not market manipulation

Rector opened the broadcast by calling the thesis "a new round of misinformation and FUD," emphasizing that "institutions [will not] receive XRP at $100,000 on a private ledger. That’s not going to happen." He explained that what social media accounts are currently labeling as "dark pools" are simply decentralized exchanges (OTC)—private bilateral venues that large holders have used for decades in stocks, forex, and more recently, digital assets.

"There’s nothing new or specific regarding XRP," he said, adding that Ripple Labs has been selling off part of its treasury through OTC since 2019 without affecting the open market price. Indeed, XRP has "rallied significantly since November," Rector noted, even as Ripple distributes new supply to institutional partners.

Much of Clover's accusations revolve around the idea that a private, separate version of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) has its own price—much higher than the public market price. Rector calls that concept a fundamental misunderstanding of how Ripple's enterprise tool works.

Central bank or government pilots often require "private ledgers where they can keep messages and transactions hidden from public view," he acknowledged, but those environments are licensed sidechains or wrapped derivative products. "XRP only exists on the public XRP Ledger that all of us use [...]. Your XRP can never leave the XRP Ledger," he declared. If testers want to model a six-figure price for stress-testing purposes, then "that’s not real XRP, never was, will never be."

To emphasize this point, Rector cites Ripple’s CTO David Schwartz, who "has addressed this issue" and clarified that "there are not two prices for XRP." Rector also provides examples from other enterprise-focused chains—XDC's hybrid architecture and the Department of Defense's Constellation's "Metagraph" implementation—to illustrate that privacy partitioning is standard practice, not proof of hidden liquidity at surreal valuations.

OTC buyers receive discounts

While some retail traders worry that Wall Street will happily pay the massive premium behind closed doors, Rector argues that the economics are reversed: "Why would an organization pay $10,000 for each XRP on a private ledger [...] when it’s available on the public market for $2?" OTC exchanges exist precisely so whales can accumulate "without moving the market," not to overpay.

In fact, history shows that Ripple often grants institutional partners a discount rather than a premium—something revealed during the discovery process in the SEC's lawsuit against Ripple. Rector reminds viewers that Ripple’s dataset includes "over 1,700 NDAs" and that R3 once negotiated an option to buy five billion XRP "at under a penny" over three years, ultimately only accepting one billion when the broader partnership soured. None of those figures reached the six-figure fantasy.