Messari Co-Founder Ryan Selkis Warns Ripple's Crash and Scandals Will Take Down the Entire Crypto Agenda in DC

Messari's Ryan Selkis has once again taken aim at Ripple and XRP. In a recent post on the X platform, Selkis described Ripple as a threat to the Trump

Messari co-founder and XRP skeptic Ryan Selkis has doubled down on his criticism of the San Francisco-based company and its cryptocurrency XRP. Selkis recently warned that Ripple's attempts to forge ties with the incoming Donald Trump administration could spell doom for crypto.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty dined with President-elect Trump earlier this month. XRP has also made headlines for its recent market strides, with Messari’s Selkis highlighting some interesting comparisons.

According to Selkis, XRP is now bigger than Salesforce in market cap and is approaching the market capitalization of Bank of America. Furthermore, XRP is now larger than ride-hailing giant Uber, Spotify, PayPal, and MicroStrategy combined. Notably, XRP is also about 5X the size of America’s biggest crypto exchange, Coinbase.

Selkis highlighted these comparisons in a recent post on the X platform, adding that “Ripple’s crash and scandals will take down the entire crypto agenda in DC.” It is worth noting that XRP currently commands a $178 billion market cap following its recent rally, while Salesforce is valued at $310 billion.

However, for Selkis and other Ripple critics, this does little to detract from the fact that Ripple's parabolic growth is a potential threat to crypto. Selkis, meanwhile, claims that Ripple will unleash doom for crypto.

In a follow-up post intended to explain his aversion to Ripple, he posited that the company’s executives “aren’t good people,” possibly referencing co-founder Chris Larsen and CEO Bradley Garlinghouse.

“The reason I’m a dick about Ripple isn’t because I care about XRP or its memecoin rally. I’m happy for all of the retail holders who have made bank. My issue with them is that they aren’t content with just being billionaires, they lust for power,” Selkis asserted.

As ZyCrypto reported previously, Ripple donated $5 million worth of XRP to Trump’s presidential inaugural fund. Reports say that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under Trump could review its crypto-related cases and pause any that don’t have fraud allegations.

Industry lawyers also bet that the SEC will soon abandon its crypto cases. Ripple’s chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty said on Jan. 15 that the regulator’s long-running enforcement case against the firm was “likely to be abandoned” by the incoming Trump administration after the agency filed an appeal challenging a July 2023 ruling that partially dismissed claims against the company.

More interestingly, Trump is reportedly open to creating a wider national strategic reserve — prioritizing U.S.-founded cryptocurrencies like XRP. The news was enough to send XRP to a price not seen since 2018. The crypto peaked at $3.38 — just two cents from its all-time high price mark.