Ripple's CTO Emeritus David Schwartz has defended his integrity against accusations that a post-departure Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) or "gag order" is forcing him to lie about the company and the XRP token.
The pushback comes after a community member accused the Ripple veteran of playing "devil’s advocate" regarding XRP.
The $10,000 XRP debate
As reported by U.Today, Schwartz recently poured cold water on hyper-bullish influencers who have been hyping up a $10,000 price target for XRP.
Schwartz has argued that the current market data simply does not support that level of conviction.
If rational and wealthy investors truly believed there was even a 1% chance of XRP reaching five digits within the next ten years, they would actively be bidding the token up to at least $20 today.
"Why aren't they? Conspiracy?" Schwartz asked his followers, highlighting the absurdity of the extreme price targets while XRP currently trades at roughly $1.38.
"I would never lie"
Meanwhile, a user has argued that Schwartz is likely bound by an NDA that restricts him from speaking truthfully about the product. As reported by U.Today, Schwartz left his position as the company's chief executive officer at the end of the previous year.
This is not the first time Schwartz has had to dismantle conspiracy theories surrounding XRP's price action and Ripple's internal operations.
He recently addressed frustrations from the community by clarifying that Ripple does not possess a secret mechanism to instantly pump the token's value.
It might have once been semi-plausible to argue Ripple had a way to massively shoot up the price of XRP, "it's hard to argue that today."
“We've explained what we're doing, why we're doing it, and what we hope to achieve. While we aren't transparent about everything, we're not hiding some grand conspiracy,” he said.
Schwartz has admitted to selling a significant portion of his own XRP holdings when the token was priced at just $0.10.
He explained that massive price surges felt as impossible as Bitcoin hitting $100, stating: "I started selling XRP at $0.10 because it seemed insane."
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
