Caitlin Long, CEO of Custodia Bank, expressed skepticism about Ripple and XRP Ledger right after Brad Garlinghouse's company applied for a National Trust Bank charter. She stated that this is not a decentralized project, the initial token release is not transparent, and this platform does not align with modern finance.

Her statements have infuriated the 'XRP Army' and Ripple executives, who believe she has missed important facts. Here are five reasons critics provide to demonstrate that Long's assessment of XRPL is incorrect:

1. No Initial Coin Offering for XRP

Long stated that the distribution of Ripple tokens by National Trust Bank occurred right from the beginning of the lifecycle, as an example of a "pre-mined" network, implying that this organization could never be trusted. "That's their first ICO," she said.

However, the XRPL validator Vet has refuted this and noted: "Ripple has never conducted an ICO. XRP had no value when XRP Ledger launched, and the entire 100 billion [XRP] was put into the original account." Unlike Ethereum, which had an official ICO in 2014, XRP was not sold in an ICO but could be mined over time.

2. The Misunderstanding of XRPL's Centralization

Banks have long been hesitant to adopt Ripple because they view it as a centralized network. However, the XRPL community is committed to building a decentralized infrastructure that includes over 1,000 nodes and more than 100 validators, many of which are operated by third parties, as mentioned in our previous report.

Vet argues that "no one is stopping you from joining the network, operating the infrastructure, or even forking the codebase." The consensus mechanism allows validators to reach agreement on the state of the ledger but is not actually under the exclusive control of any one participant, even Ripple.

3. Ethereum Also Raised Capital Through Bitcoin

Long added that Ethereum and Bitcoin are considered "trustworthy" because they did not raise much or did not raise any funds previously. However, Vet pointed out that Ethereum actually did raise capital because "Bitcoin was used to distribute ETH to early investors." Critics argue that Long has contextualized Ethereum's funding to downplay this company's support and exaggerate Ripple's support.

4. Stablecoins Do Not Mean Failure

The CEO of Custodia Bank described Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin as a strategic shift. She referred to this stablecoin as "an acknowledgment that the underlying blockchain has not been adopted as expected." In contrast, the XRP community views this shift as an enhancement.

RLUSD is issued on the XRPL itself, meaning it leverages XRPL's decentralized trading and native payment platform. Ripple's Chief Technology Officer (CTO), David Schwartz, cleverly responded:

I am always ready to chat whenever you want about events... our RLUSD stablecoin, XRP Ledger, and the native XRP token.

5. The History of XRPL Shows Continuous Growth

Although Long asserts that Ripple has not accomplished much despite being in the space longer than most competitors. However, Ripple enthusiasts appreciate the strong developer community, the increasing number of tokenized assets, and the ongoing use by institutions. Additionally, Vet emphasized: "The First Decentralized and Tokenized Platform Available Now — XRPL."