Peter Smith
A Wall Street veteran just stirred up a massive controversy by claiming that basically no one is actually using XRP for anything real. The blunt statement has got the XRP community pretty fired up, with supporters jumping in to defend their favorite crypto.
XRP Holders Fight Back Against Usage Claims
Fred Krueger, who's worked at big-name firms like Salomon Brothers and Greenwich Capital, dropped a bomb on social media saying "not one actual human being" is really using the Ripple token. The former trader, who has a PhD from Stanford, basically said that just holding XRP doesn't count as actually using it.
That didn't sit well with the XRP crowd. Matt Hamilton, who used to work at Ripple, quickly fired back with a real example. "I literally just sent some XRP to help out a friend. I am in the UK, they are in the US. It was the easiest, cheapest, and fastest way," he posted on X.
Other community members chimed in too, pointing out that people use XRP to buy meme coins and NFTs on the XRP Ledger. But Krueger isn't buying it - he thinks these examples are pretty weak and says you can't even compare XRP to Bitcoin, which he believes actually has real utility.
XRP Network Data Tells a Different Story
Here's where things get interesting. A 2020 study found that a whopping 96% of transactions on the XRP network had zero economic value. That's a pretty damning statistic that backs up what skeptics like Krueger have been saying all along.
As for banks using XRP? That's still mostly hype with very little real adoption. Sure, Ripple has its on-demand liquidity solution that uses XRP as a bridge asset, but actual bank adoption remains pretty scarce and mostly anecdotal.
Krueger's been beating this drum for a while now. The self-proclaimed "Bitcoin maximalist" slammed the idea of putting XRP in a US strategic reserve earlier this year. Back in January, he lumped XRP together with Cardano (ADA) and Chainlink (LINK) as some of "the most ridiculous" tokens out there.
What This Means for XRP Going Forward
This whole debate really highlights the gap between what crypto projects promise and what they actually deliver. XRP might be the third-biggest crypto by market cap, but critics argue that doesn't mean people are actually using it for real stuff.
The XRP community keeps pointing to partnerships and legal wins as proof things are moving in the right direction. But at the end of the day, Krueger's core question remains: are people genuinely using XRP, or are they just holding it hoping the price goes up? That's something the XRP ecosystem still needs to figure out.
Peter Smith
