{"id":9518,"date":"2025-01-24T14:31:39","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T14:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=9518"},"modified":"2025-01-24T14:31:39","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T14:31:39","slug":"ripple-the-biggest-obstacle-for-a-bitcoin-reserve-garlinghouse-claps-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=9518","title":{"rendered":"Ripple: The Biggest Obstacle For A Bitcoin Reserve? Garlinghouse Claps Back"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Is Ripple Lobbying against a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve? After US President Donald Trump signed an executive order (EO) establishing a crypto-focused working group on January 23, the heated debate flared up on X. The order<\/a>\u00a0aims to regulate digital assets and explore the creation of a so-called \u201cdigital asset strategic reserve.\u201d Although the EO does not specifically identify Bitcoin, its language underscores a broader mandate to strengthen American leadership in digital financial technology\u2014while explicitly banning the development or deployment of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).<\/p>\n

Is Ripple Lobbying Against A Bitcoin Reserve?<\/h2>\n

Shortly before the executive order was signed, Pierre Rochard, Vice President of Research at Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) and a prominent early adopter, posted<\/a> a statement via X on January 23, calling out Ripple\/XRP as\u00a0 \u201cthe biggest obstacle\u201d for the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR).<\/p>\n

He asserted: \u201cThe biggest obstacle for the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is not the Fed, Treasury, banks, or Elizabeth Warren<\/a>. It\u2019s Ripple\/XRP. They are aggressively lobbying against the SBR by throwing around $millions at politicians, desperately trying to derail it. They did the same to attack Bitcoin mining under the Biden administration. Obviously they want to protect their marketing narratives and push for CBDCs<\/a> built on their platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rochard\u2019s accusations center on the claim that Ripple aims to undermine a BTC-only strategic reserve in favor of what he alleges is a broader \u201ccrypto reserve\u201d that includes XRP and possibly other tokens. He also revived longstanding criticisms of the company\u2019s lobbying activities, alluding to the efforts of co-founder Chris Larsen, who has provided financial support to environmental campaigns criticizing BTC\u2019s proof-of-work mining.<\/p>\n

Responding to Rochard\u2019s remarks, Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, countered<\/a> via X: \u201cUnless you are choosing to ignore the core tenants of the POTUS campaign (which aggressively supports American companies and technologies), our efforts are actually INCREASING the likelihood of a crypto strategic reserve (which includes Bitcoin) happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exchange intensified when Rochard questioned Garlinghouse\u2019s personal investment in XRP, suggesting a potential conflict of interest in his advocacy efforts. \u201cBrad, have you ever actually bought XRP? Or just sold? Yes\/no, don\u2019t need to know how much but curious since you\u2019re asking the government to buy XRP.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Garlinghouse went quiet on this, Rochard doubled down on his allegation that Ripple stands firmly against a BTC-focused reserve: \u201cTo all who were doubting that Ripple\/XRP is lobbying against the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, here\u2019s the proof. They want to sabotage the SBR with \u2018crypto\u2019 distractions. There\u2019s an infinite number of altcoins that are \u2018Made in the USA,\u2019 anyone can do it, nothing strategic about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rochard also shared a video clip in which Garlinghouse endorses a broad-based crypto reserve rather than a strictly BTC-only approach: \u201cRight from the horse\u2019s mouth: Ripple\/XRP is opposed to a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, they want a \u2018Diversified Crypto Reserve\u2019 instead. This is what they\u2019re pushing behind closed doors in DC, and waving $millions at politicians to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further, Rochard supported his claims by referencing a CNBC article titled \u201cRipple\u2019s Anti-Bitcoin Campaign To Promote CBDCs,\u201d which details Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen\u2019s financial backing of Greenpeace USA\u2019s \u201cChange the Code\u201d campaign. This initiative, launched in March 2022 with a $5 million contribution from Larsen, aimed to modify BTC\u2019s proof-of-work protocol under the guise of reducing its environmental impact.<\/p>\n

Ryan Selkis, founder of the cryptocurrency research firm Messari, aligned<\/a> with Rochard\u2019s perspective, stating that Ripple\u2019s lobbying efforts to include XRP in a crypto strategic reserve are misguided: \u201cBrad\u2019s answer is illuminating. Ripple is likely lobbying to make XRP part of the \u2018crypto strategic reserve\u2019 when in reality only Bitcoin (as an energy-adjacent commodity) makes sense in any sort of reserve like this. I\u2019ve warned the Trump admin about Ripple for months. Toxic.\u201d<\/p>\n

At press time, BTC traded at $105,012.<\/p>\n

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

Is Ripple Lobbying against a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve? After US President Donald Trump signed an executive order (EO) establishing a crypto-focused working group on January 23, the heated debate flared up on X. The order\u00a0aims to regulate digital assets and explore the creation of a so-called \u201cdigital asset strategic reserve.\u201d Although the EO does not […]<\/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-9518","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\/9518","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=9518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}