CTO Ripple Responds to Criticism About XRP from the CEO of Custodia Bank

David Schwartz, the Chief Technology Officer of Ripple, publicly suggested clarifying important information about Ripple, XRP, and the stablecoin RLUSD following criticism from Custodia Bank's CEO, Caitlin Long. The exchange began when Long criticized Ripple's direction in a podcast earlier in August 2025. In her comments, Long asserted that tokens like Bitcoin and Ethereum are more suitable for coding than Ripple. She stated that these networks require less capital to deploy, in contrast to Ripple's distribution of XRP. Long also questioned why Ripple has not yet been able to replace traditional payment networks like SWIFT, despite having existed for over 10 years. Ripple, founded in 2012 and based in San Francisco, focuses on cross-border payments using XRP, the company's native digital asset. XRP Ledger (XRPL) is a decentralized blockchain that supports fast transactions and payments. XRPL Authentication Responds to Complaints About ICO and Centralization Schwartz responded on August 7, stating that he is always ready "whenever" Long wants to discuss this topic directly. He also cited a detailed rebuttal from the famous XRP Ledger validator, Vet (@Vet_X0).

Vet argues that Ripple has never conducted an initial coin offering (ICO). Instead, XRP had no value at launch, and the entire supply of 100 billion tokens was released in the Genesis ledger account. He also dismisses claims that the XRP Ledger is centralized, noting that it operates over 1,000 nodes and 100 independent validators. Vet confirms that RLUSD, the stablecoin pegged to the US dollar by Ripple, is issued on both Ethereum and XRP Ledger. He stated that Ripple continues to build its own decentralized infrastructure, including an internal decentralized exchange and ongoing feature upgrades. Schwartz concluded by inviting longs to discuss further to clarify misconceptions about Ripple's technology and roadmap.