Key Points
- Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s tweet incites debate between Bitcoin and XRP fans amidst crypto market crash.
- Factors contributing to market downfall include Trump’s proposed tariffs, Chinese app DeepSeek, Bitcoin and Ethereum options expiry, and crypto liquidations.
Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple’s CEO, ignited an already heated debate between Bitcoin and XRP supporters with a tweet on January 26, 2025. His seemingly innocuous comment, “slow weekend, anything exciting happened?” turned the comment section into a war zone.
This “slow weekend” turned out to be a fast-paced one for the top cryptocurrencies as they saw significant drops in their value. For example, XRP suffered a loss of over 10% in just 24 hours, marking its worst day since December 18, 2024. On the same day, Bitcoin also experienced a nearly 7% drop.
Causes for the Crypto Crash
Several reasons can be attributed to the market crash. One of them includes the harsh tariffs proposed by Donald Trump. Some experts believe that these tariffs could lead to inflation growth, prompting traders to adopt a more cautious approach.
Another unexpected event was the release of DeepSeek, a Chinese competitor to ChatGPT. This new app caused turmoil in both the stock and crypto markets after topping the U.S. App Store chart.
Moreover, the market was further affected by the upcoming $9.5 billion expiry of Bitcoin and Ethereum options on January 31, 2025. This event led traders to secure profits and exit the market, pushing prices even lower.
Lastly, one of the main reasons for the crypto crash was the $800+ million in crypto liquidations within a 24-hour period.
The XRP and Bitcoin Rivalry
The feud between XRP and Bitcoin fans intensified during the market crash. XRP, which lost the most value among the leading cryptocurrencies, became the target of criticism from Bitcoin enthusiasts.
XRP received backlash for its focus on serving banks rather than overthrowing them, attracting a new audience to cryptocurrency but turning away Bitcoin purists. The Ripple network’s use of too few nodes and its focus on corporate clients were met with disdain from many anti-bank crypto enthusiasts.
Bitcoin, on the other hand, is free from allegations of a rug pull as it has no dev team and saw no pre-sale. However, concerns have been raised about the potential negative impact of large Bitcoin acquisitions by companies like BlackRock.
XRP supporters defended their coin by highlighting its utility, contrasting it with Bitcoin, which they described as a slow coin good only for holding or speculating.
The Ripple team’s negotiations with the Trump administration to include XRP coins in a multi-currency crypto reserve basket have further fueled the rivalry. Rumors of XRP’s inclusion in the national crypto basket reserve increased following a dinner between Ripple executives and Trump.
The future of the new administration’s crypto journey remains uncertain. Whether it will be Bitcoin-exclusive or multi-token is yet to be seen.
