Ripple CTO Breaks Silence on Caitlin Long’s ‘XRP ICO’ Misconception

Ripple CTO David Schwartz has stepped forward to clarify facts about Ripple, RLUSD stablecoin, XRP Ledger, and XRP. His statement comes in response to a recent criticism from Caitlin Long, CEO of Custodia Bank.

Ripple CTO Addresses XRP Doubts, Open to Dialogue with Caitlin Long

In a post on X, Schwartz told Long he is available “whenever” she wants to discuss the matter directly. His message came after Caitlin Long claimed Ripple has failed to live up to its early promise.

In a recent podcast, she said platforms like Bitcoin and Ethereum are better suited for tokenization because they required little or no capital to launch. Long contrasted this with Ripple’s XRP initial coin offering (ICO).

She also questioned why the company has not replaced financial systems like SWIFT despite its long presence in the space. Long also pointed to Ripple’s stablecoin launch on Ethereum as evidence that the XRP Ledger may not serve as the foundational layer Ripple once envisioned.

Ripple CTO referenced the prominent XRPL validator’s (@Vet_XO) response as a start of the clarification. Then, Long can seek an audience with him for any additional discussion.

XRPL Validator Rebuts Caitlin Long’s Claims

Vet said Long’s comments misrepresent both the history and technical structure of the network. In a detailed post, Vet said Ripple never conducted an ICO.

He clarified that XRP price was initially zero and that the full supply of 100 billion tokens was placed in the Genesis ledger account when the network launched. This directly refutes Long’s claim that Ripple raised large amounts of capital through an initial coin offering.

Vet also challenged the repeated claim that the XRP Ledger is centralized. He called such arguments either ignorant or the result of poor education.

He emphasized that anyone can join the network, run a validator, or even fork the codebase. Vet added that the XRP Ledger currently supports over 1,000 nodes and more than 100 validators operated by individuals and businesses.

He further said that these validators are not controlled by Ripple. The XRPL validator addressed Long’s comment that Ripple relies on Ethereum for stablecoin issuance.

Vet confirmed that RLUSD (the company’s U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin) is also being issued on the XRP Ledger. He said Ripple Payments continues to operate natively on XRPL infrastructure, not just Ethereum.

Vet further pointed out that Ethereum conducted a public ICO, unlike Ripple. He said Bitcoin was used in that sale to distribute ETH to early backers. According to him, this makes Ripple’s launch process distinct and arguably more transparent.

Also, Vet noted that development on the XRP Ledger has never slowed. He highlighted ongoing progress including the adoption of new features through amendments.

According to him, there’s also an active developer base, and strong liquidity supported by a native decentralized exchange.  added that XRPL was the first network to introduce both a DEX and tokenization layer.