A Ripple senior executive denies rumors of the company paying Coinbase for listing XRP trading pairs.

While nearly all cryptocurrencies have focused on decentralization for greater adoption, San Francisco-based Ripple has taken a different approach with XRP. The firm has forged partnerships with many banks to promote their services of quick and low-cost cross-border payments, and this policy has been highly successful. Another milestone for XRP occurred earlier this week when it was added to Coinbase Pro. However, there are rumblings that Ripple paid Coinbase to list the crypto.

Rumors Refuted

The rumors of a payoff really took flight when Alistair Milne, a U.K.-based investor, asked Ripple directly if they had paid Coinbase off. This ignited the usual healthy (yes, I’m being sarcastic) Twitter debate. (XRP is one crypto that is either loved or hated.)

Some questions: a/ how much Ripple $XRP were you given in return for listing? (we know it was offered before)

b/ what are the restrictions on you selling the above

c/ did you ask the SEC/CFTC if it is OK to sell a security? https://t.co/3IXCnlsS9A — Alistair Milne (@alistairmilne) February 25, 2019

Elliott Suthers, director of communications for Coinbase, would not speak publicly but offered a private chat about the subject. Milne then posted a screenshot of this response, further igniting talk of a payoff. Then Miguel Vias, the head of markets for Ripple, got into the act, tweeting:

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.

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

Previous Offers by Ripple Revisited

Milne then responded to the tweet by Vias, asking:

Has there been *any* transfer of assets between Ripple and Coinbase in the past year or so? Of any sort (loan, donation, deposit, etc.)?

Extremely hard to believe Ripple offered $100mil of assets and then Coinbase decided to receive 0 benefit.

This $100 million mentioned by Milne refers to a Bloomberg article from about a year ago. In the article, Bloomberg says that four sources said that Ripple tried to buy their way onto the Coinbase and Gemini exchanges.

Has there been *any* transfer of assets between Ripple and Coinbase in the past year or so? Of any sort (loan, donation, deposit, etc.)?

Extremely hard to believe Ripple offered $100mil of assets and then Coinbase decided to receive 0 benefit https://t.co/O9KETqsQuS — Alistair Milne (@alistairmilne) February 27, 2019

The sources say that Ripple offered $1 million to Gemini to list XRP. As for Coinbase, the article notes:

During preliminary talks with Coinbase last fall, Ripple said it would be willing to lend the exchange more than $100 million worth of XRP to start letting users trade the asset, according to a person privy to that discussion. Ripple, without putting the proposal in writing, told Coinbase it could pay back the loan in XRP or dollars, the person said. If the exchange had chosen the latter, it could have profited had the tokens become more valuable upon being listed, the person said.

So far, there has been no conclusive proof one way or the other. It’s possible that Ripple did sweeten the pot to get listed on Coinbase Pro, but it’s also possible that the exchange felt it was the right time to add the crypto as their Coinbase Pro platform caters to institutional investors, the exact people who could benefit the most from XRP and its association with the banking industry.

Do you think Ripple paid Coinbase to have XRP listed? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Twitter/@alistairmilne, and Twitter/@miguelvias.