A senior executive at blockchain payment network Ripple has publicly defended the company against fresh criticism of its associated cryptocurrency, XRP.

In an ongoing Twitter debate, David Schwartz, Ripple’s chief technology officer, rebuffed a claim that XRP was designed as a revenue stream for the company.

Schwartz: XRP does not make Ripple richer

The argument followed further tweets from sources including ex-Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd, who alleged Ripple’s partners had told him they were not prepared to use XRP. Schwartz protested:

“Nobody buys XRP to give Ripple money to do things.”

XRP investors have felt the pinch in recent weeks as the token fell to more than two-year lows against the U.S. dollar. Currently trading at around $0.19, XRP/USD is now down almost 95% against its all-time high of $3.40.

For bagholders, the picture is complicated by the curious relationship Ripple maintains with XRP. Past spats have seen Schwartz and others attempt to divorce the company from suggestions it created and controls XRP, despite it selling huge tranches of tokens throughout the past two years.

Over time, as Cointelegraph reported, those sell-offs have only increased in size.

Familiar controversies

Now, however, Schwartz appeared to distance Ripple — and its sell-offs — from XRP even further, stating:

“We were vc/angel funded and were going to build regardless. We started selling XRP only after there was a market price and for negligible amounts compared to our other funding.”

The schism appeared to intensify after prominent Bitcoin trader Tone Vays openly suggested that XRP was an illegally-launched security.

Days before, on Dec. 20, Ripple announced it had secured a $200 million Series C funding round. This led it to describe 2019 as its “strongest year” in official literature, despite XRP’s conversely dire fortunes.