Ripple’s XRP clone surged by 400% – investment opportunity or scam?

• XRP Classic, an XRP clone, has recorded price gains of 400%.
• Market participants are wary that the project might be a scam.

XRP Classic (XRPC), a clone of popular cryptocurrency XRP, has caught the attention of investors who may not know it is likely dubious. The token is the third most searched asset on the crypto market data aggregator CoinMarketCap.

Per CoinMarketCap data, XRPC is up 442.18% in the last 30 days. However, little is known about the token which has a contract that traces back to Binance’s BNB Chain. The project’s website states that its mission is to develop solutions that will make the crypto space safer.

The project’s roadmap is split into four phases with the final being the launch of its own blockchain. However, other items on the roadmap raise alarm bells that it is a likely scam. The roadmap says that it has a target of getting listed on top exchanges, reaching a market cap of $250 million, and having over 100k holders.

Similarly, despite its name, the project has nothing to do with Ripple’s XRP Ledger or its XRP token. There is also no contract on the XRP Ledger blockchain with a similar contract name to the project.

This would not be the first time that scammers have targeted Ripple and XRP. Back in December, Ripple chief technology officer David Schwartz warned the community of a phishing scam claiming to originate from Binance.

In the same month, the lead developer of the XRP Ledger ecosystem and author of Xumm Wallet Wietse Wind warned the public about another scam targeting the XRP community. The scammers published a fake Ripple website offering an „autonomous XRP staking trial program.“

Crypto scams getting more rampant

Scams targeting Ripple and XRP are getting more common as the company nears the conclusion of its case with the SEC. The XRP community is anticipating a ruling from presiding judge Analisa Torres anytime in March, an event that could drive XRP to new highs.

Meanwhile, scams have also been on the increase across the entire crypto market. According to a report by cross-chain asset management protocol DeFi Yield, the crypto ecosystem lost close to $50 billion to scams in 2022. The figure represents an over $500% increase from losses recorded in 2021.

The biggest contributors to the losses include Terra Classic, Genesis, Celsius, FTX, and BlockFi. Terra’s collapse wiped out over $40 billion of investors‘ funds and was the source of much of the market contagion that caused the crypto winter.

Losses from the exploits of smart contracts were also a threat in 2022. Meanwhile, the market was able to recover $901m from compromised projects, up from $648m last year.