Vitalik Buterin Takes Aim At Ripple (XRP): 'They Tried To Throw Us Under The Bus'

Ethereum ETH/USD co-creator Vitalik Buterin says he is glad that people are pushing against regulations that give privilege to ETH over other “legitimate cryptocurrencies” — but he singled out Ripple Labs associated XRP token saying they’ve “lost right to protection.”

What Happened: Buterin’s comments were made in response to a tweet by Bankless DAO founder David Hoffman, who shared a help page from Canadian crypto trading platform Newton. 

Glad to see Ethereum people pushing against regulations that privilege ETH over other legitimate cryptocurrencies.

(I have not dug into the details of what specifically is going on and to what extent it's a gov thing vs a compliance decision of one business, but either way...) https://t.co/NDYPh5rqsk

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 17, 2022

Buterin, a Canadian citizen, said while he had not dug into the details of what was going on and whether it was a platform’s “compliance decision” or a governmental mandate. 

“​​Glad to see Ethereum people pushing against regulations that privilege ETH over other legitimate cryptocurrencies.”

Hoffman said, in the thread, that had Newton restricted XRP, he “wouldn’t have said anything.” Buterin replied that “XRP already lost their right to protection when they tried to throw us under the bus as ‘China-controlled.'”

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Why It Matters: In December 2020, Ripple told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that Bitcoin BTC/USD  and Ethereum were “highly susceptible to Chinese control because both are subject to simple majority rule, whereas the XRPL prevents comparable centralization.”

Ripple’s move earned the ire of Buterin at the time who said the company was sinking to “new levels of strangeness.”

On Wednesday, Buterin also said he had also opposed banning proof-of-work cryptocurrencies by governments.

Incidentally, reminder that I oppose banning PoW:https://t.co/KiClK2cUFL

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 17, 2022

Price Action: At press time, Ethereum traded 0.9% higher at $1,850.98, while XRP was down 1% at $0.38, according to Benzinga Pro data. 

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