Ripple CTO Reveals Why He Can’t Comment on XRP Price

Ripple’s CTO David Schwartz discloses that lawyers advised him not to talk about factors that might affect the future price of XRP.

David Schwartz, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Ripple, has highlighted two significant reasons why he would not analyze the potential factors that could bolster XRP prices.

Firstly, the Ripple CTO noted that his analysis could be wrong. Secondly, he emphasized that lawyers have advised him not to comment on factors that could affect the future prices of XRP.

I’d love to share what I think my analysis is, but I won’t for two reasons:

1) I’m probably wrong anyway. Everyone probably is.

2) Lawyers tell me not to talk about factors that might affect future prices.

So you’ll have to use your own imagination.

— David “JoelKatz” Schwartz (@JoelKatz) January 8, 2024

Although Schartz did not shed light on the statement, the legal advice could be part of efforts to prevent investors and regulators from reading meaning into such analysis.

Commenting on the XRP price could be seen as an effort to boost the coin’s adoption.

XRP Enthusiast Expresses Concern About XRP Escrow

Schwartz made the disclosure following an exchange on the X (formerly Twitter) platform. During the exchange, an XRP enthusiast complained about Ripple’s escrow program.

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It bears mentioning that Ripple releases at least 200M XRP into the market through the escrow program every month.

Notably, the X user argued that Ripple’s current core business model involves dumping XRP in the market.

Ripple CTO Reacts 

Reacting to the comment, Schwartz emphasized that Ripple only has two choices regarding the XRP coins locked in escrow. Per Schwartz, the crypto payments company can either reduce its XRP holdings or continue to hold an enormous amount of crypto assets. 

He emphasized that the company’s original plan was to reduce its XRP holdings as fast as possible. This prompted the X user to ask whether Ripple has any plan to burn the coins locked in escrow.

Responding, the Ripple CTO said he could not think of the possible events that could prompt Ripple to burn the escrow coins. Furthermore, Schwartz does not think burning the escrow would have any positive benefits on XRP market value. 

To corroborate this claim, he recounted a 2018 debate where some people argued that a reduction in supply would help bolster XRP’s price. However, this argument proved ineffective, as seen in Stellar (XLM) burn, Schwartz said, adding: 

“I wouldn’t assume the economics work [in] some particular way without really thinking about it first.” 

It bears mentioning that Stellar burned 50% of its token supply (55 billion XLM) in 2019. Hours after the announcement, the price of XLM spiked 14% to $0.08. Since then, XLM has surged only 37.5% to date.