Ripple veteran David Schwartz has debunked a social media rumor claiming that the company has secretly pre-allocated the vast majority of its XRP escrow to hidden institutional players.
Recently, an X user falsely alleged that the Ripple CTO Emeritus had confirmed the existence of these clandestine contracts.
Shutting down the rumor
The initial social media post implied that there was a hidden operation occurring behind the scenes at Ripple.
The majority of Ripple's locked XRP escrow, which releases tokens on a monthly basis, was already secretly earmarked for institutional buyers or specific partners. This was supposedly done through private contracts.
Retail investors were allegedly being kept in the dark about the true distribution of the asset (as the latest conspiracy theory implies).
However, Schwartz swiftly replied to shut down the emerging rumor.
Pushing back against fake incentives
Just two days before the latest comments, the Ripple CTO Emeritus made headlines for rejecting another controversial idea: offering banks "fake discounts" or artificial incentives to force them to use the digital asset.
Schwartz argued that such subsidies create a fragile business model. To illustrate his point, he compared the strategy to the early days of the ride-sharing giant Uber.
He noted that loss-making subsidies often attract users who will immediately abandon when there is an option to do so.
Schwartz stressed that Ripple prefers organic growth, allowing XRP's utility to drive institutional adoption without the need to manufacture artificial demand.
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
Vladislav Sopov
