Ripple (XRP) Bashed by Forbes: Cardano’s Charles Hoskinson Responds

TL;DR

• Forbes labeled Ripple’s blockchain as ineffective and its token as purely speculative, questioning its utility and market value.
• Charles Hoskinson and crypto supporters defended Ripple, making jokes with the media company’s report.

Forbes Takes Aim at Ripple (XRP)

The global media company Forbes recently published a report called “The Rise of Crypto’s Billion Dollar Zombies,” which touched upon numerous cryptocurrency protocols. It paid special attention to Ripple (the company behind the XRP token) and provided detailed information about its early days.

“To fund their ambitious project, executives at the company created 100 billion XRP tokens and sold $1.4 billion worth to the public. In early 2018, at the height of the first wave of crypto euphoria, XRP was trading with a market value of $132 billion, giving cofounder and executive chairman Chris Larsen a net worth of $8 billion.”

However, Forbes claimed that Ripple failed to meet its goal to improve the global financial network in the following years. The media company went even further, calling Ripple’s blockchain “useless.” 

“In terms of global money flows, not much is going on at Ripple Labs today, and few expect it ever to disrupt the Belgian banking cooperative known as SWIFT, which facilitates $5 trillion in interbank transfers every day. It’s largely useless, but the XRP token still sports a market value of $36 billion, making it the sixth-most valuable cryptocurrency,” the report reads.

Forbes’ bashing manifest did not stop here, describing Ripple and numerous other blockchains as “crypto zombies.” It also argued that the company’s native token – XRP – has “no purpose other than speculation.”

Hoskinson’s Reaction

One person who opposed Forbes’ report is Cardano’s founder, Charles Hoskinson. He jokingly mentioned that all cryptocurrency protocols mentioned by the media (most importantly Ripple, Algorand, Tezos, Bitcoin Cash, and Stellar) are “zombies,” but “it’s because we got all the brain.”

Hey guys @tezos @Algorand @bitcoincashorg @Ripple_XRP1 @StellarOrg @BobSummerwill we are all Crypto Zombies according to Forbes.

I guess it’s because we got all the 🧠! pic.twitter.com/nwKbf7R4Pb

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) March 27, 2024

Numerous X users agreed with Hoskinson’s stance, calling Forbes’ report “a joke of an article.” It is worth noting that the media company has not always been that hostile toward the cryptocurrency industry. Earlier this month, it presented a list of the top 10 digital assets people should focus their attention on, with XRP being one of those.