Bloomberg’s analyst ignites backlash after Ripple’s XRP joke

During the 2024 Bitcoin conference, Bloomberg’s senior crypto analyst, James Seyffart, asked BlackRock’s head of digital assets, Robert Mitchnick, why he failed to mention working at Ripple. Crypto detective Subjective Views sparked retaliation against Seyffart moments after the interview, accusing him of ‘taking a shot at XRP.’ 

Seyffart offered a light-hearted apology for his earlier XRP joke, alluding that the $XRP army was out to ‘cancel’  him following his misunderstood jest. Nevertheless, Seyffart added that the joke intended for his audience had landed well. Despite the negative comeback from the XRP army, Seyffart disclosed that he supported Ripple in the ongoing court case against the U.S. SEC.   

Seyffart claims the pun on XRP was misunderstood 

For all the XRP guys in my mentions. I don't hate XRP. It was a joke geared toward my audience and a joke that landed well. Hell — I'm absolutely rooting for Ripple in court against SEC. I personally think the SEC has vastly over-reached in many areas including with Ripple/XRP.…

— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) July 26, 2024

XRP enthusiast Lab Rat claimed that Seyffart had shown his lack of intelligence and immaturity by being unprofessional on stage. Another XRP fan, Jravelo, reminded Seyffart that Mitchnick was originally at Ripple before switching to BlackRock. Jravelo asserted that Seyffart would have to eat his words when XRP outperformed BTC. 

Another Twitter user, Michael Jordan, said XRP was a threat to Bitcoin since most crypto enthusiasts only seemed to target XRP but never took shots at other cryptocurrencies. XRP holder Samuel Hines defended XRP and pointed out that XRP had partnered with over 100 financial institutions. Hines proudly added that XRP was a member of the Banks for International Settlement (BIS) task group dedicated to cross-border payments.   

Seyffart affirmed that he harbored no hatred for Ripple’s XRP and that the joke was received well by the conference’s targeted audience. He expressed his support for XRP, saying he believed the U.S. SEC had overreached in the case against Ripple and many other ongoing cases.

In support of Seyffart, LambdaEx claimed that the XRP fanboys needed to be reminded where they belonged since they were ‘having too much fun staying poor.’ Another Seyffart supporter, Saywhat, affirmed that the XRP army was the weakest he had come across years into his investment career.  

Ripple’s XRP price increases by 2.3% in 24 hours

According to data from Coingecko, the XRP price increased by 1.5% to $0.6071 in 24 hours and by 2.3% in the last seven days. The data further showed decreased XRP market activity, as XRP had a trading volume of $1.08 billion, a 43.10% drop in the last 24 hours. Moreover, Coingecko’s data revealed the XRP token market cap at $34 billion as of the time of writing.

According to CoinMarketCap data,  Ripple’s XRP gained 16.11% from $0.54 to $0.63 within five days. The coin then saw a 4.62% price decline, but it is currently struggling to regain its bullish momentum.

Notably, crypto analyst Whale Alert reported two anonymous XRP withdrawals, amounting to 45.6 million XRP worth 27.1 million, from Binance to an unknown wallet on July 26.