Researcher Jesse of Apex Crypto Insights has sparked a debate by arguing that XRP's price is being deliberately suppressed by institutional actors. His central claim revolves around a 2021 Citibank document that originally referenced a “Regulated Internet of Value”—a phrase closely tied to Ripple’s own “Internet of Value” thesis and its Interledger Protocol—before the wording was later changed to “Regulated Liability Network.” Jesse contends the shift was made because the original terminology made the connection to Ripple too explicit.
The researcher points to XRP’s price chart for circumstantial support. The token hit $3.84 in the 2018 bull run and touched $3.60 earlier in the current cycle, yet it has largely moved sideways for years while Bitcoin saw significantly higher gains. Jesse sees this flat trajectory as inconsistent with normal market dynamics for an asset with Ripple’s institutional footprint and design ambitions for cross‑border settlement.
Jesse traces a chain of institutional references: Citibank’s Tony McLaughlin has equated the Regulated Liability Network with a shared ledger concept, and the Bank for International Settlements has separately discussed a unified ledger that could replace correspondent banking and even SWIFT. The implication, according to the researcher, is that if XRP or a Ripple‑based protocol were to underpin such a system, its price might be managed to avoid volatility that would be problematic for a settlement or reserve layer.
Ripple executives have pushed back against manipulation narratives. CEO Brad Garlinghouse has stated that XRP’s multi‑billion‑dollar daily volume makes it too liquid for any single entity to control, while CTO David Schwartz noted that XRP’s performance mirrors other large‑cap altcoins. The SEC’s 18‑month investigation prior to its 2020 lawsuit did not uncover evidence of price manipulation by Ripple. Jesse himself does not present hard proof of coordinated suppression; his argument is based on interpretation of public documents and institutional messaging, leaving the question unresolved.
