As US-based crypto companies continue to celebrate Donald Trump’s political comeback, a war has been brewing among industry advocates following the president’s move to sign an executive order on cryptocurrency last week.
On January 23rd, Trump signed an executive order that resulted in the creation of a working group to explore the best ways to build a national reserve for digital assets. While the order excited many, the omission of the term ‘Bitcoin’ disappointed some Bitcoiners.
When campaigning, Trump promised to create a Bitcoin strategic reserve to enable the American government to buy and hold the world’s largest crypto asset. But as mentioned, last week’s order indicated that the reserve would include other cryptocurrencies, not just BTC.
Immediately after the executive order was announced, Bitcoiners who felt like Trump didn’t make good on his promise started pointing fingers at the entity they believed changed the president’s plans for Bitcoin.
Bitcoiners Level Accusations Against Ripple
Jack Mallers, the CEO of Bitcoin payments firm Zap, took to X to accuse Ripple of attempting to undermine Bitcoin strategic reserve in the US. He added that the XRP issuer’s attack on BTC was ‘a threat to America’s national security.’
Another Bitcoin advocate, Pierre Rochard, said Ripple, which owns billions of dollars in XRP, a digital asset it developed and issues, had spent millions to prevent the establishment of a Bitcoin strategic reserve to ensure that Trump’s administration created a crypto stockpile, which would include XRP.
It is worth mentioning that Ripple was one of the biggest crypto donors who financed Trump’s campaigns. Furthermore, it shelled out about $4 million for the president’s inauguration earlier this month. Some analysts say the company’s move to donate millions of dollars was to ensure that XRP became relevant in the White House.
Why Bitcoiners Don’t Want XRP Included in Strategic Reserve Plans
Nonetheless, Bitcoin maximalists are against the idea of including XRP in the national crypto stockpile, arguing that the Ripple-issued token isn’t decentralized, considering a massive portion of the asset’s total supply is controlled by Ripple. Moreover, these BTC advocates say it isn’t wise for Trump’s government to consider XRP since its issuer is involved in an ongoing legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for allegedly selling unlicensed securities.
Meanwhile, Bitcoiners tout their preferred digital asset as one that operates per the Web3 principles of decentralization and faces no legal troubles. For starters, BTC isn’t controlled by anyone, given that its developer disappeared a few years after its creation.
However, some Bitcoin critics argue that certain firms, such as Blockstream, have significant influence over BTC’s development, making the digital asset partly centralized. It is important to mention that Blockstream CEO Samson Mow, also an early adopter of Bitcoin, helped El Salvador create its own Bitcoin strategic reserve and recognized BTC as a legal tender.
Ripple CEO Responds to Accusations
Following the accusations leveled against his company, Ripple boss Brad Garlinghouse tweeted on Monday to deny their involvement in persuading Trump to expand the original Bitcoin reserve concept to one that accommodates other digital currencies. However, he revealed that his firm was open to the idea of XRP being included in the American government cryptocurrency stockpile.
Garlinghouse added that if Trump’s administration wanted to create a digital asset reserve, then it was only right that it be representative of the crypto sector, not just a single coin. He also dismissed the ‘maximalism’ expressed by BTC advocates, calling it ‘misinformed and outdated.’ Garlinghouse then called for unity within the industry to achieve common goals.
Bitcoiners Clap Back at Garlinghouse
However, Mow told the Ripple CEO that Bitcoiners had no shared goal with his company, which he accused of stealing from retail investors. Similarly, Head of Digital Assets Research at VanEck, Matthew Sigel, said an XRP strategic reserve should be opposed.
Meanwhile, pro-crypto policymaker Cynthia Lummis told Politico on Tuesday that XRP and Bitcoin supporters need to be on the same page to make it easy for a crypto strategic reserve to be established.
