Matthew Sigel, Director of Digital Asset Research at VanEck, recently infuriated the XRP community by implying that popular altcoins actually have no utility.
“Dear XRP maxis, I may never understand what your ‘blockchain’ actually does, but I will always respect the passion it takes to pretend it does something,” Siegel said in a recent social media post.
In a follow-up post, he further questions the true interest of developers and whether there will be any meaningful applications built on XRP, a common indicator of blockchain viability.
Bitcoin comparison
He also compared the adoption of Bitcoin by large institutional actors and even governments to the relatively modest adoption of XRP.
Van Eck’s crypto expert pointed out that private investors such as university endowments, sovereign wealth funds, and even central banks are investing in Bitcoin. Additionally, a total of 12 countries are currently mining Bitcoin with direct government support. This is due to the synergy between cryptocurrencies and the power grid.
Throwing cold water on collaboration with BlackRock
After facing backlash from the XRP brigade, Siegel also cited Ripple’s collaborations and initiatives (such as BlackRock and OntoFinance) and questioned whether they would actually bring financial benefits to XRP holders.
He listed economic mechanisms such as transaction fees, revenue sharing, and token burn, and argued that XRP does not have a clear mechanism linking token prices to Ripple project adoption.
Ignore the ETF hype
VanEck has also been actively involved in crypto ETF applications for other assets. For example, we have applied to list the Spot Solana (SOL) ETF in the US.
However, VanEck did not apply for an XRP ETF, which puts it in the same camp as ruthless financial giants like Fidelity and BlackRock.