David Schwartz, former chief technology officer of Ripple and one of the original XRP Ledger architects, has responded to claims that he is partially to blame for XRP's poor performance.
In a recent interaction on the X social media platform, David Schwartz was challenged about his possible impact on the price of the Ripple-linked cryptocurrency.
"Don't run from this. You can honestly say you don't have anything to do with it? It's not unfounded anger," the user wrote.
Although David Schwartz does not entirely deny that he can have an impact on the price of XRP, he is clear that it is minimal.
"Can I honestly say that I have nothing to do with the price of XRP? I guess probably not nothing. But very little," David Schwartz responded.
The response from Schwartz comes in the wake of mounting anger within the XRP community about the token's long-running price slump.
Indeed, XRP has seen roughly a 50% decline in value over the past year, per data from CoinMarketCap. During this period, the token has seen several temporary spikes, but the overall trend has been downward.
Of course, XRP is not the only token experiencing such a dramatic drop in value.
Stellar (XLM), another prominent cryptocurrency that seeks to enable payments, has seen a very similar price trend over the same time period.
David Schwartz slams XRP critics
The interaction came on the back of a long post in which Schwartz lamented the rise in hostile replies he receives on X.
Schwartz, a Ripple veteran, disclosed that some users are actually following him into other discussions and then proceeding to either label him a fraud or criticize him for his work on XRP.
The Ripple veteran noted that he has now made the decision to block such users, as irrelevant crypto-related posts are disrupting his discussions with other users.
Nonetheless, he stressed that the decision affects both critics and fans. Even if someone makes a positive comment about XRP but in an unsuitable place, they might also get blocked.
He also emphasized that he has no issue with honest criticism or accusations that make sense and come with good arguments.
He is mostly annoyed with users who keep hijacking unrelated discussions to vent their frustration.
In fact, Schwartz even offered to unblock users who commit to not doing so in the future.
David Schwartz is still working with Ripple
Schwartz stepped away from his day-to-day duties at Ripple at the end of 2025. He had worked at the firm for over a decade. However, he has not completely left Ripple.
Earlier this month, Schwartz clarified that he's still on Ripple's board of directors and holds the honorary title of CTO Emeritus.
Furthermore, he disclosed that he still meets with his old team twice a month.
