Ripple CEO Gets Cooked By New Reporter After Asking This XRP Question

The gap between institutional demand around Ripple’s business and XRP’s price has become a major talking point for Crypto Enthusiast VALE.

In a new X post accompanying a video, VALE focused on a reporter’s direct question to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse about how central XRP remains to the company as Ripple expands its business and promotes RLUSD.

The reporter’s question placed XRP at the center of the discussion, asking why institutional demand appears to be arriving through RLUSD rather than XRP and whether the cryptocurrency remains a major focus for Ripple.

Reporter Questions XRP’s Role

In the video, the reporter questioned Garlinghouse about institutional demand and Ripple’s growing business activities. The reporter noted that the demand had arrived for RLUSD, rather than XRP.

The reporter then asked how central XRP remains to Ripple as the company expands into other ventures. The question also raised the observation that XRP does not appear to be receiving the same level of attention as other parts of Ripple’s business.

VALE welcomed the question and connected it to concerns he had raised previously about XRP’s price performance despite Ripple’s partnerships.

He noted that XRP’s price has remained disconnected from the demand surrounding Ripple because, in his view, XRP has not yet become widely used by banks as a liquidity bridge.

VALE Focuses on Ripple’s Payment Volumes

VALE then turned to Garlinghouse’s comments about Ripple’s payment activity. In the video, the Ripple CEO said the company’s payment business handled $13 trillion in payment transactions in 2025, while stating that 99.9% of those transactions did not touch a crypto rail or a stablecoin.

VALE used that statement to reinforce his central criticism. He questioned how XRP could be considered central to the broader demand surrounding Ripple if almost all of the reported payment volume did not involve cryptocurrency rails.

He also referenced previous comments about XRP being central to Ripple’s strategy, contrasting those statements with Garlinghouse’s description of the payment volumes that did not use crypto rails.

VALE further referred to XRP flows and Ripple’s treasury activity, arguing that XRP flows were not included in Ripple’s treasury flows. He presented this as another reason for questioning how much institutional demand directly translates into XRP usage.

Community Members Debate the XRP Impact

VALE’s central question, however, remained focused on the distinction between demand for Ripple’s broader payment infrastructure, demand for RLUSD and direct institutional demand for XRP.

His video ultimately called for greater attention to XRP’s actual role within the institutional activity surrounding Ripple, rather than assuming that growth across Ripple’s businesses automatically translates into equivalent demand for XRP.