Messari Founder Says Ripple is a Threat to the Trump Crypto Agenda in Fresh Attack

Messari founder Ryan Selkis again slams Ripple as a threat to the Donald Trump administration’s crypto agenda.

Messari founder Ryan Selkis has long been clear regarding his reservations about Ripple and XRP. But in recent months, the crypto blowhard’s disdain for the pair appears to have taken a rather venomous turn. The heightened antagonism comes as he has taken issue with Ripple’s efforts to establish ties with the incoming Donald Trump administration.

In the latest instance highlighting this, he has again slammed Ripple as a threat to the Trump admin’s crypto goals, warning that the potential damage looms larger amid XRP’s recent market strides.

For context, Ripple’s core payments business is tied to the cryptocurrency XRP. The firm also boasts ownership of a large chunk of the asset and is the primary contributor to the network behind it.

Selkis Takes Aim at Ripple and XRP Again

“Ripple’s crash and scandals will take down the entire crypto agenda in DC,” Messari founder Ryan Selkis railed in an X post on Thursday, January 16, citing XRP’s growth in his latest anti-Ripple rant.

In the post, he asserted that XRP was now bigger than Salesforce in market cap and was approaching the market cap of Bank of America, a top 30 U.S. company with twice the value of Uber, bigger than Shopify, PayPal, and MicroStrategy combined, and five times the size of Coinbase.

XRP is now bigger than Salesforce and approaching BofA in market cap.

+ Top 30 US company.
+ Twice the value of Uber.
+ Bigger than Shopify, PayPal, and Microstrategy combined.
+ 5x the size of Coinbase.

Ripple’s crash and scandals will take down the entire crypto agenda in DC.

— Ryan Selkis (d/acc) 🇺🇸 (@twobitidiot) January 16, 2025

However, despite its recent surge, XRP has a market capitalization of only about $187 billion, while Salesforce, for example, has a market cap of about $306 billion.

But for other Ripple and XRP detractors, this likely does nothing to detract from the main point raised by Selkis: Ripple’s rise is a threat to crypto. 

The main gripe in this regard stems from the belief that the project is centralized due to Ripple’s large XRP holdings and, as such, does not offer a fair representation of crypto ideals to the masses. In their view, it should not be allowed to become a poster boy for what crypto is. Of course, XRP proponents beg to differ.

Meanwhile, Selkis did not end his tirade with his claims that Ripple will bring certain doom for crypto, in a separate post meant to be an explainer for his antagonism against the firm, he asserted that the company’s executives were bad people, likely referring to chairman Chris Larsen and CEO Brad Garlinghouse.

“My issue with them [Ripple executives] is that they aren’t content with just being billionaires, they lust for power,” he contended.

Selkis’ recent rant seems to follow reports that Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse had urged Trump in a meeting to expand his proposed national Bitcoin reserve to include other cryptocurrencies.

Some outlets have since reported that the president-elect is receptive to the idea. The potential boon for XRP sent it soaring to within inches of its all-time high, though the Trump team has yet to confirm the development.