{"id":58631,"date":"2025-11-15T03:16:31","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T03:16:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=58631"},"modified":"2025-11-15T03:16:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T03:16:31","slug":"xrp-under-fire-vaneck-research-chief-questions-its-real-utility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=58631","title":{"rendered":"XRP Under Fire: VanEck Research Chief Questions Its Real Utility"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A senior VanEck executive has reignited a long-running debate over XRP\u2019s real-world utility, questioning both the relevance of the XRP Ledger and the economic case for holding the token\u2014just as a new spot ETF has posted the strongest launch numbers of any fund this year.<\/p>\n

Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, took direct aim at supporters on X, opening with a post that combined sarcasm and skepticism. \u201cDear XRP maxis,\u201d he wrote, \u201cI may never understand what your \u2018blockchain\u2019 actually does, but I\u2019ll always respect the passion required to pretend it does something. So keep hustling!\u201d<\/p>\n

XRP Utility Debate Reignites<\/h2>\n

The tone set the stage for a thread that pushed beyond memes into pointed questions about developer activity and value accrual. In a follow-up post, Sigel asked: \u201cGenuine question: has any developer ever woken up and said, \u2018Time to build\u2026 on XRP\u2019? Would love citations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hours later, he underscored the lack of detailed responses from the community with a terse update: \u201cZero replies so far\u201d. The challenge is clear. In a market where developer traction and on-chain activity are often treated as proxies for network value, Sigel is not just criticizing the narrative, but demanding evidence that ledger is actually a target platform for builders.<\/p>\n

When an supporter pointed to Ondo Finance launching its OUSG tokenized Treasury fund<\/a> on the XRP Ledger as proof the ecosystem is active, Sigel shifted the discussion to token economics.<\/p>\n

\u201cCool initiative, but does any of this actually accrue value to XRP token holders? I\u2019m not aware of any fee capture, revenue share, burn, or economic linkage. I think maybe I\u2019m not smart enough to understand but I\u2019ll keep trying to learn and update my views!\u201d<\/p>\n

The exchange also touched on the fortunes created around the token and the controversies attached to them. After one user sarcastically wrote that XRP had \u201cfunded a whole company [Ripple] on nothing and got a few billionaires out of it,\u201d Sigel replied: \u201cLike the one who funded Greenpeace\u2019s \u2018Change the Code\u2019 campaign<\/a> to pressure Bitcoin into abandoning PoW? Quite a legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The remark alludes to the well-known funding of Greenpeace\u2019s anti\u2013proof-of-work campaign by a Ripple co-founder, a move that has long polarized Bitcoin and XRP communities.<\/p>\n

When another commenter accused him of trying to \u201chold ppl back\u201d from investing in the token and dismissed Bitcoin as \u201ccompletely speculative,\u201d Sigel contrasted the two assets in terms of institutional adoption and state-level engagement.<\/p>\n

He argued that \u201cretail investors like University Endowments, Sovereign Wealth Funds, and today a Central Bank\u201d are now in bitcoin, and claimed that \u201c12 countries are now mining Bitcoin with direct government support, thanks to its synergies with the electrical grid,\u201d before adding, \u201cAnyway by all means, invest away in XRP. I\u2019m not stopping you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The thread drew in Solana Foundation\u2019s Vibhu Norby, who has previously clashed<\/a> with the XRP community but here offered a more reconciliatory, if still critical, framing.<\/p>\n

\u201cXRP is a SoV coin similar to Bitcoin with cheaper fees wrapped in 13 years of payments mythology. Instead of Satoshi, the collective unconscious of the XRP Army centers around a company (which btw happens to be very well run). The XRPL has minimal usage for transactions compared to smart contract blockchains, but it is not important to its value just like Bitcoin has minimal transactions compared to smart contract blockchains but it is not important to its value,\u201d Norby commented.<\/p>\n

All of this unfolded against a striking market backdrop. Canary Capital\u2019s spot ETF XRPC, began trading on November 13<\/a> and generated around $58 million in first-day volume, including $26 million in its first hour\u2014enough to make it the biggest ETF debut of 2025 so far and narrowly surpass the launch-day volume of Bitwise\u2019s Solana ETF, BSOL. The two funds now define the upper tier of single-asset ETF launches this year, with the next-best newcomer more than $20 million behind in day-one trading.<\/p>\n

At press time, XRP traded at $2.27.<\/p>\n

\"XRP<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A senior VanEck executive has reignited a long-running debate over XRP\u2019s real-world utility, questioning both the relevance of the XRP Ledger and the economic case for holding the token\u2014just as a new spot ETF has posted the strongest launch numbers of any fund this year. Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, took […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-58631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58631\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}