Internal Ripple Email From 2018 – Registered in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit against alleged unregistered securities sales, but has resurfaced. These documents show that Ripple executives and staff have actively discussed promoting the narrative that Bitcoin is “controlled by China.”
How Ripple overseed Bitcoin by “China Fud”
“4) One of the quoted emails labeled China + Bitcoin contains the following directive: [Redacted] He has already publicly said about Bitcoin, which is run by China. ”
Another segment outlines plans to create an “Insights Post” that contrasts XRP with other cryptocurrencies. [Redacted]. 'Note: I feel this will be carried out in the opposite direction of the current promotional efforts regarding exchanges. At the moment, we are telling all current or future exchanges that we cannot provide promotional help. ”
In addition to these strategic notes, the email exchange between Ripple Staff dated July 16, 2018 suggests a detailed and continuous conversation about how to frame the problem of Bitcoin's perceived centralization. One staff member wrote: [Redacted]? Would you like to put someone on the record now to call Bitcoin and Ethereum specifically? ”
a [Redacted] The staff then proposed a meeting. The email emphasizes that “China + Bitcoin” is an internal topic of Ripple, and appears to be aimed at highlighting the suspected vulnerability of Bitcoin tied to China's mining pool in order to promote XRP as “decentralisation.”
These newly emerging emails come shortly after US President Donald Trump announced the US strategic Bitcoin reserve. In particular, the leak revealed that Ripple is opposed to a “bitcoin-only” strategy and lobbying for a more diverse approach, including XRP, Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA). Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse reportedly met with the Trump administration to advocate for the wider inclusion of digital assets.
Publicly, Ripple's lobbying is positioned as part of a campaign to form crypto-friendly regulations. However, critics argue that Ripple's behind the scenes features work clearly with anti-Bitcoin tones, in grasping leaked emails.
Critics quickly seized a tweet from Ripple CTO David “Joelkatz” Schwartz (@Joelkatz) on October 9, 2018. Does it sound like it's spread out to you? ”
Critics say the tweet is closely in line with the July 2018 email discussion, suggesting a collaborative PR strategy to portray Bitcoin as centralized.
Riot Platforms, Inc. Longtime XRP skeptical Pierre Rochard, vice president of research at the company, said, “I don't respect David Schwartz, Ripple, or XRP. For the past decade, the marketing strategy to hype their pre-mined Altcoin while pretending that banks want to use XRP has been to buy and promote anti-Bitcoin disinformation (not so). They'll say anything to advance the utilities zero-centric garbage “technology.” ”
Rochard added: False information. The truth won, he lost. ”
Ripple's long history of anti-Bitcoin marketing
Surprisingly, Ripple has a long history of attacking Bitcoin. Ripple co-founder and executive chairman Chris Larsen is vocal in shifting the Bitcoin consensus mechanism from Proof of Work (POW) to Proof of Stock (POS). In March 2022, Larsen personally funded a $5 million Greenpeace USA campaign called “Change the Code,” which aimed to change Bitcoin mining protocols to Bitcoin developers and prominent industry figures.
Despite the famous ads and the high-profile art installation by Benjamin Fong Wong, “Satoshi's Skull” has retreated spectacularly. Bitcoiner accepted it as a “bad guy” and adopted it as a mascot. On March 25, 2023, Fong Won posted a Twitter thread admitting that he was “wrong” to view Bitcoin's environmental impact as a “black and white issue.”
After interacting with Bitcoin advocates online, he acknowledged the complexity of mining energy dynamics. He moved from advocating code changes to suggest Bitcoiner's “working within the system” to a network green, a notable pivot from the campaign's original intentions. However, Greenpeace doubled and despite Von Wong's soft rhetoric, he continued to tour the skulls by pressing that message.
At the time of pressing, BTC traded for $81,593.
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