Ripple CTO David Schwartz told a “completely made up, hypothetical story” in 2023 where an unnamed exchange demanded millions of dollars to list XRP (CRYPTO: XRP), with the token later accounting for 20% of the exchange’s revenue after Ripple struck a deal.
The Hypothetical That Wasn’t So Hypothetical
In May 2023, Schwartz posted a cryptic tweet saying the story of Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) listing XRP was “the only story I most wish I could tell that I can’t.”
A month later, he followed up with a disclaimer that he was about to tell a “completely made up, hypothetical story” where any resemblance to real exchanges was “entirely coincidental.”
In his hypothetical, an unnamed exchange refuses to list XRP even though doing so would clearly benefit their business.
Instead, they approach Ripple, demanding millions of dollars as a listing fee. Ripple refuses, and months go by at a deadlock.
The exchange even privately admits that they would have listed XRP long ago if Ripple simply didn’t exist as a company.
Eventually, a deal gets struck. Ripple pays. XRP gets listed. Almost immediately, XRP trading accounts for 20% of the exchange’s revenue, proving the token was always going to be a money-maker.
Why Ripple Paid
Schwartz was not celebrating this outcome. His point was that Ripple essentially had to pay money just to stop their own existence from being used as an excuse to block XRP from the market.
He framed it as damage control, writing “we paid money to not let our existence hurt the ecosystem.”
The deeper frustration centered on the SEC lawsuit.
Schwartz noted that a litigation adversary was cherry-picking these very facts to argue that Ripple was paying exchanges to artificially pump XRP adoption and liquidity, a framing he found deeply unfair and misleading.
The Viral Misinterpretation
In March 2026, the account @pumpius sparked renewed debate by recirculating Schwartz’s 2023 remarks and dropping the “hypothetical” framing entirely. The post reframed the unverified scenario as a confirmed “mafia protection racket” allegedly involving Coinbase—a claim that lacks any official evidence or confirmation from either company.
By removing the original context, the viral post reframed a discussion on industry risk-subsidies into an allegation of misconduct.
Photo: Grey82 / Shutterstock.com
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