Ripple’s listing on the Coinbase platform was first met with great excitement; after all, it had been a glaring omission from the exchange, given that XRP is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the space. The XRP token’s price spiked following the listing and everything went well for a while.
However, the token’s listing was soon questioned because it failed to meet one of the criteria stated in Coinbase’s Digital Asset Framework. The criteria said to be violated is the fact that Ripple’s token is largely controlled by the team, who holds a majority stake in the supply — the rule states that the team’s ownership must be in the minority.
For a while, there were concerns that the XRP token would be taken off the exchange, but that worry was soon put aside.
Given that Ripple violates this rule, some in the crypto community began to wonder if Ripple had essentially paid Coinbase for the listing of the token.
Ripple’s Head of Markets, Miguel Vias, responded quite bluntly that no such payment had occurred and that the listing was an “independent decision” made by Coinbase.
We’re happy to go on the record. Coinbase’s listing of XRP (also, not “our token”) was Coinbase’s independent decision – we did not give them anything to make it happen. https://t.co/xTVvACqsQa
— Miguel Vias ⚡ (@miguelvias) February 27, 2019
Coinbase is itself facing its own set of controversies.
The exchange is facing severe backlash to its decision to acquire Neutrino, which was associated with Hacking Team, an entity that has been known to have aided governments that have committed human rights abuses by selling spyware to them. Some users even left the exchange in response to the incident.
