Ripple CTO Speaks out on His XRP Holdings' Recent Value Change

Ripple CTO David Schwartz has addressed his followers on the recent appeal filed by the SEC to the Supreme Court against Ripple.

He also talked about his personal XRP holdings a little, assuring the community that he is doing his best about their holdings as well.

Schwartz discusses investment contract definition

In his tweet, the Ripple executive reflected on the appeal to the Supreme Court made by the SEC, in which the regulator tried to dispute the ruling made by the judge in July last year, saying that Ripple’s XRP sales on secondary markets and personal XRP sales by Brad Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen did not violate laws about securities and investment contracts.

Schwartz gave a definition of an investment contract, which was, “If you bought an investment contract, then someone is obligated to do something for you even if it harms them to do it.”

However, Schwartz pointed out that when someone relies on “people to act in their own interest,” this is absolutely not a contract. In this regard, he referred to the example of buying art from a beginner artist, saying that it is not an investment contract either. "Contract aspects and the investment aspects are totally separate," Schwartz elaborated.

Turning to the subject of the Howey test, which is used for ruling whether or not an asset can qualify as an investment contract, the Ripple CTO stated: “This isn't a hard and fast, black and white rule. It's a concept that has to be applied reasonably to complex factual situations.”

Schwartz expressed a hope that the Supreme Court will “get it right and apply common sense to current law.”

Schwartz comments on his XRP holdings

In the comments to that tweet, an XRP enthusiast accused Schwartz of taking all the dividends for himself, while saying that “nobody has made a penny off $XRP from holding it for 7 years. It’s a waste of everyone’s time and money.”

Schwartz responded that his XRP stash have “gone up and down in value precisely the same way everyone else's has.” He insists that all his efforts as Ripple CTO are targeted at pushing up the value of all XRP – XRP held by him, Ripple and the community.