The creator of the leading smart contract platform (Ethereum) Vitalik Buterin dropped a hot take on XRP which in turn provoked the XRP community. 

While commenting on the surplus successes and failures recorded in the crypto industry in 2022 like the Terra (Luna) meltdown and FTX implosion, Buterin flaunted the opinion that XRP is “completely centralized”, citing that it should be treated as regular crypto. This assertion could stem from the fact that the XRPL founders sent 80% of XRP’s supply to the cross-border payment firm Ripple at the creation of the digital asset. 

In several instances, Buterin has always shown no support for XRP, especially in the ongoing lawsuit where the U.S. SEC argues that the coin is a security. Analyzing his numerous remarks regarding XRP, Vitalik Buterin’s resentment against the XRP community started when Ripple lawyers labeled Ether (ETH) a China-controlled digital asset in one of their court filings.

“The only qualification to be able to call yourself part of the crypto space is to somehow use cryptography and to have some change in the data structure. Those are literally the qualities to call yourself decentralized; you don’t even need decentralization… like XRP, you know, they’re still completely centralized,” Vitalik remarked. Furthermore, he added that the XRP community “hasn’t apologized for writing documents to the US government basically saying that they should be favored over Bitcoin and Ethereum because Bitcoin and Ethereum are China controlled.”