The former Monero lead developer sparked controversy after paying tribute to buying the XRP, revealing that he believes the bank will be repealed within two years.
Fire up the XRP debate: A skeptic investigation
The claims of former Monero lead developer Riccardo Spagni argue that his close friend and longtime crypto skeptic had been interested in the XRP Ign Ignited debate between his avid supporters of digital assets and its persistent critics. This conversation was further driven by the surprising belief of an unknown friend that traditional banks will become obsolete within two years. This is a sentiment that brought new scrutiny to the XRP team's marketing strategy.
After years of legal entanglement that puts the issuer's vision to establish XRP as a major bridging currency, the company has seen a more favorable environment emerge under the Trump administration. For example, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has since agreed to suspend legal action against Ripple, and President Donald Trump took the notable step of naming XRP as a potential candidate for the country's digital asset stockpile.
These events and many other positive developments from Ripple have raised XRP profiles, attracting the interest of first-time cryptocurrency buyers. Due to growing interest, XRP has increased from under $1 on November 16, 2024 to more than $3.60 on July 22, 2025. Cryptocurrency has since overturned some of its profits, but it is one of the best-performing high-cap altcoins for 12 months.
Additionally, some professional XRP analysts on social media platform X, who have predicted the year to end at least $4, are urging new users like Spagni's friends to seek exposure to cryptocurrency.
“My best friend who has always been skeptical of crypto and never owned it asked me how to buy a wallet and exchange account…wait for that… XRP, because it's revolutionary and all banks disappear in 18 months,” Spagni said.
Critics and accusations
In response to Spagni's post, some X users seemed surprised at the fact that developers were being asked about purchasing XRP rather than Monero's privacy coin XMR. Still, many of those responding to the post seemed to have been resigned to the fact that the “standard” appears to be intended to buy XRP, regardless of what critics are saying about it.
However, others blame the narrative that Ripple's XRP, the third digital asset of market capitalization, could replace banks, indicating that its supporters clearly do not understand how blockchain works.
“The idea that XRP and Ripple work as a bank has always been awful to me very much. It really needs to have an understanding of the world below shoe level and zero. Banks want this.
But even most voice detractors seemed to agree that the XRP promotion team knew how to make an impact. They point to the level of engagement in social media posts referring to Ripple and XRP, and the number of new crypto enthusiasts asking about their digital assets. Still, not everyone is celebrating the Ripple/XRP marketing machine.
One user's fish catfish suggested that the entire XRP market capitalization was based on misinformation about the bank and the false belief that being a 'bridge currency' makes tokens valuable. Catfish also appeared to be unhappy with investigative journalists accused of failing to identify parties involved in what users call false information campaigns.
“It's incredible that investigative journalists are digging into rabbit holes and not knowing where all of these misinformation campaigns are coming from and where the money trails are located,” Catfish said.
