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How the fuck is XRP worth anything?
1258 sats \ 44 comments \ @elvismercury 22 Mar AskSN
I've been wondering this for years and now I am extra-wondering it. XRP seems the pinnacle of worthless; does anyone know how it has done so well for so long?
I realize I'm asking the wolves for their opinions on the sheep, but I'm truly curious. Someone must know the story.
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119 sats \ 1 reply \ @SimpleStacker 22 Mar
Beats me. People jump into things without really understanding them. They believe the claims the creators make without investigating.
It can be a blessing or a curse, I guess. I got into Bitcoin late because I don't believe claims people make. It wasn't until I personally read the Bitcoin white paper that I became convinced, but that was in late 2020.
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30 sats \ 0 replies \ @elvismercury OP 23 Mar
Very similar to my own origin story. I try to tell myself that understanding stuff pays off, but then I think of all the years I thought btc was nonsense. Sigh.
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216 sats \ 2 replies \ @justin_shocknet 22 Mar
It comports with an institutionalist view of the world that things must be organized and polished to be effective, same type of person that can only believe things from a perceived authority because they lack the discernment to interpret information first hand.
Bitcoin is messy and chaotic, there's FUD from all angles, it can never succeed under these conditions.
XRP on the other hand has management and professional advocacy, and will succeed because of its clear strategy of providing an institutional product.
There's other psychological triggers like in-grouping that are used as well, but that's the gist.
It's important to recognize that Ripple isn't just a scam that managed to stay afloat for a long time, it's a military-grade psychological operation likely with state-level backing who's victims are washing funds for other clandestine ops.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @elvismercury OP 23 Mar
XRP on the other hand has management and professional advocacy, and will succeed because of its clear strategy of providing an institutional product.
That makes sense, I've seen that dynamic play out to the tune of millions of dollars personally a number of times. But I'm still struggling to see what the "management and professional advocacy" is actually directed toward. Like, who is buying into that tarted up vision?
[I]t's a military-grade psychological operation likely with state-level backing who's victims are washing funds for other clandestine ops.
Military-grade psyop I am in total agreement about, as it's a centralized group that has tens of millions (maybe more) of capital to deploy on beating the bushes, manufacturing advocacy, multi-level PR, etc., and bc it's so centralized these actions can be coordinated and executed w/ efficiency, at least up to a certain point.
But wrt the "state-level backing" part -- this is new to me. I could interpret it as something like "scam-like things operating as multiple billion dollar enterprises invariably attract big / powerful / ruthless players, which are often semi-nefarious state-level or organized crime".
But that's a pretty generic observation. Did you have a more particular one?
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101 sats \ 0 replies \ @justin_shocknet 23 Mar
directed toward
That banks and other incumbents will adopt a product or service from a corporation vs. an open protocol without a support structure, management and sales are part of the show.
who is buying into that tarted up vision
Never underestimate the ability of bot armies to sway people with no discernment, many such cases.
more particular
Your general statement covers it well, whether it starts off as a profitable scam and a state-level actor gets in on it, or a state-level actor that knows what Bitcoin is (itself a state-level psyop) and runs ops like XRP / Ethereum to challenge it in their favor, or at least buy themselves time, is immaterial.
Wouldn't it be something if a country otherwise threatened by Bitcoin-Dollarization uses XRP to covertly accumulate Bitcoin in the absence of mining hardware or electricity infrastructure? Perfect for North Korea that can't keep the lights on, or Iran who got pwned by stuxnet?
Controlled opposition is a plausible tactic too, XRP may simply exist as rat poison or a strawman to make Bitcoin look good through contrasting anti-thesis.
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86 sats \ 2 replies \ @nichro 22 Mar
I read before that even if banks do use the Ripple system for cheap transfers, the XRP token itself is either irrelevant or optional to this whole process.
If this is true, then why hold XRP?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @elvismercury OP 23 Mar
My question exactly. And even setting aside the "cheap transfers" use case, why would you use XRP for it? Like, why?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Fabs 22 Mar
Yep, A small - very small - amount of XRP is burned with each transaction, and each "player" needs to hold a bare minimum (like 10 XRP?) on their account in order to participate in the network - IIRC.
That's pretty much it.
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86 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby 22 Mar
Of all the crypto projects I have never understood why anyone would be part of the XRP army. I mean, do you convince yourself you are a band of misfits trying to enable bank transfers and CBDCs to make a better world? Who does that appeal to?
I assume they are all paid shills.
Most of XRP trading is probably insider trading or degens being degens.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @elvismercury OP 23 Mar
I wonder how liquid the market is. Like, it's [checking...] $140b market cap in theory; but is it just a handful of degens wash-trading the shit out of themselves? What is the actual amount of value embedded in the network for real?
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55 sats \ 1 reply \ @craigonbitcoin 22 Mar
Create a token called xrp. Sell it to exchanges for pennies to sell to retail speculators. Use the proceeds to run tons of marketing campaigns able to pump the price. Create a bot Army on social media to manipulate the narrative and encourage more retail speculation. Dump xrp to fund Ripple operations and marketing campaigns. Repeat.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @elvismercury OP 23 Mar
That's basically my best explanation still.
We should applaud the XRP guy as a fucking genius if that's really all there is to it; what a playbook. Imagine becoming a billionaire based on that.
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55 sats \ 2 replies \ @StillStackinAfterAllTheseYears 22 Mar
I mean, if Beanie Babies and Pogs could have their moments, why not XRP?
But seriously, I think it's helped that mainstream grifters -- from Ashton Kutcher to Trump -- have helped prop it up.
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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @elvismercury OP 23 Mar
Ah, the Ashton Kutcher thing is news to me. Trump has helped for sure, but XRP has been worth a lot for years so Trump is only a small part of the overall answer.
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55 sats \ 0 replies \ @StillStackinAfterAllTheseYears 23 Mar
Oh yeah, it was a part of one of the big crypto publicity stunts during the last (or one from last? I can't keep track) hype cycle in 2018.
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55 sats \ 5 replies \ @Undisciplined 22 Mar
I've never even looked into what claims are made on behalf of XRP. I just know my idiot brother sold his bitcoin and bought XRP and that he doesn't go any deeper than NGU in his thinking.
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32 sats \ 4 replies \ @elvismercury OP 23 Mar
Oh boy. I guess the good news is that, looking at the chart, depending on when exactly your BIL sold and bought he could be in the money?
My friend knows I'm into btc and was asking me about XRP recently and I told her that XRP had no reason to exist and was a scam; she pulled up the chart. I made the usual objections, but it did give me pause.
Thus my quest to understand if this is just the usual world gone mad, or if there is some actual nugget of real-ness to the thing.
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55 sats \ 2 replies \ @Undisciplined 23 Mar
I know he sold his bitcoin before the runup to the ATH (idiot) and had actually bought the XRP a while before that.
If he gets out of XRP anytime soon, he should come out ahead on that at least, but he'll be way behind on bitcoin and still totally clueless about why he should be stacking.
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37 sats \ 1 reply \ @elvismercury OP 23 Mar
Do you guys have spicy Thanksgivings? I'd pay some sats to be an audience for that one. You should put him on your podcast ;)
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 23 Mar
No, we haven't been at the same Thanksgiving in years. We're not close at all. I just hear from my dad some of the dumb shit he's doing with his money. To be fair, he did buy bitcoin way before I did, but he never understood the point.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @028559d218 24 Mar
Does this look like a healthy chart to you?
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27 sats \ 2 replies \ @stack_harder 23 Mar
to be fair, the same could be said of most , if not all crypto. i often wonder how litecoin is still alive, proof of work at least
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @elvismercury OP 23 Mar
Yes. The same could be said for literally everything, bitcoin, fiat, all of it. I am very certain of my understanding of the answer around bitcoin and fiat, and confused about the answer to XRP.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @028559d218 24 Mar
My opinion... is that it's 'trader retards' trying to 'get rich quick'. The same reason that people buy memecoins or 'tokens' on some random cryptocurrency. There really isn't a 'reason' or 'rationale'... it's all speculative.
To find the answer I take a quick look at Bitrefill. If it isn't used there at least as a quick payment method for something it tells me it's not money or capital.
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27 sats \ 0 replies \ @OT 22 Mar
I put it down to marketing. I know quite a fee people who have some and they don't seem to be entirely retarded.
But you are right. We know it's worth nothing.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nikotsla 23 Mar
It doesn't.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Blank 23 Mar
What the fuck is XRP?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @realBitcoinDog 23 Mar
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @028559d218 23 Mar
Because there are trader retards.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Butterfinger 23 Mar
How is fiat worth anything? Value is subjective and in people's mind. That also tell us how cheap sats are.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Ge 22 Mar
I know one guy who's been saying for 5 years it's gonna explode the other day same thing told him dude until it happens stop saying that that's like #10 lol meanwhile was telling u buy btc at 20k to dump n go all I on btc...even the market caps makes no sense for it to go to 100 a coin lol yet they continue the narrative
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @5bad0e6f31 22 Mar freebie
I don't bro and i think it's risky that's why I never buy xrp
0 sats \ 1 reply \ @037447d9ca 22 Mar
Ripple predates Bitcoin
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @JesseJames 23 Mar
Ripple predates Bitcoin ripplepay does, but not xrp, to be exact, ripplepay back then was an IOU not really a currency model, oh wait, that's what fiat does...lol
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @LibertasBR 22 Mar
Ripple seems like a beggar for attention with this flopped "currency". Paying lobbyists in droves and smear campaigns against Bitcoin. It's comical that they're trying to sell a "solution" that within fiat currencies and shitcoins, USDT and USDC do better.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 22 Mar
My far from informed impression is that it presents to work with the current banking system and improve payments speed and lower cost of transactions without directly threatening fiat system...but rather enhancing it. So it appeals to smarmy speculators who essentially collaborate and appease fiat hegemony.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SwapMarket 22 Mar
Maybe because they made tons of money out of thin air and can bribe politicians?
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/02/19/donald-trump-shares-xrp-article-on-truth-social-spurring-bullish-sentiment
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @denlillaapan 22 Mar
When a post makes me chuckle, you get zaps. Clearly.
My low-confidence: marketing and stupid peeps? (Greenpeace etc)
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @nkmg1c_ventures 22 Mar
Like Chainlink, people expect it to be the New World Order coin adopted by institutions etc. That's the best I can gather
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nkmg1c_ventures 22 Mar
Here's an OP on 4chan.org/biz capturing the vibes:
Hey Chainlink, we the Ripple XRP community hate you. We are the chosen coin. We sat at the same table as the president, while your Russian conman had to sit on a different table (the kids table). Your ethereum token will never be above $20 ever again.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 22 Mar
I saw data that they had something like 40k in XRP ledger action in a day yesterday or so… they had more value when fighting the government than they do now… at least you could rally around that
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75 sats \ 2 replies \ @johngalt 22 Mar outlawed
stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.