The Ripple Chief Technology Officer (CTO) David Schwartz has responded to rumours that the Company might be considering abandoning its association with the XRP token. The crypto firm has so far provided XRP with its major utilities, and such rumors could negatively impact its price.

Ripple Is Not Abandoning XRP

Schwartz clarified in an X (formerly Twitter) post that Ripple wasn’t abandoning XRP and that the post that kicked off the rumors was misunderstood. The rumors began when an X user (@AspenSignals) posted Schwartz’s cover photo on his X platform and asked if Ripple was abandoning XRP. 

Schwartz’s cover photo suggested that the company was abandoning XRP due to a “web of corruption” in the financial world, which was set to hinder them from achieving their goal of providing instant payment services using XRP. 

However, Schwartz stated that the lines related to a fictional pitch for a fictional movie. He added that the circumstances to make the pitch match reality haven’t happened yet, suggesting that Ripple wasn’t facing such a challenge. However, Ripple facing such a challenge seemed feasible considering its long-running legal battle against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

At some point, the Commission was believed to have maliciously enforced an action against the crypto firm based on claims made by Ethereum insider Steven Nerayoff. Moreover, the lawsuit has had a negative impact on Ripple’s operations and could have easily forced them to abandon XRP due to regulatory scrutiny. 

Thankfully, Schwartz’s swift response has helped clear things up and helped alleviate concerns among XRP community members. XRP is at the centre of Ripple’s operations, and the crypto firm uses it to provide cross-border payment services. Ripple is also the largest XRP holder, holding almost 50% of the crypto token’s supply. That is another reason why XRP community members may have been concerned, considering that the crypto firm might dump its XRP holdings on the market if it abandons XRP. 

Still Part Of Long-Term Plans

In an interview with CNBC, Ripple’s President Monica Long reaffirmed that XRP was still part of the company’s long-term plans. She made this remark when she was quizzed on whether or not there was still a need for the XRP token, with Ripple making plans to launch its stablecoin. Long clarified that XRP will still be used in its operations, noting that the crypto firm uses a “mix of assets” to serve its payment customers. 

She also highlighted that XRP serves a unique purpose and is a bridge asset for the “long tail of currency pairs.” She also alluded to XRP’s future use case, noting that it will play a major role as Ripple tokenizes more assets on-chain. Long stated that XRP will be used to provide liquidity to these assets. 

Featured image created with Dall.E, chart from Tradingview.com