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On March 6th, CNBC will be airing an episode of Fast Money which will feature four special guests which will include Ripple’s CEO, Brad Carlinghouse and Asiff Hirji, the President and Chief Operating Officer of Coinbase.

The meeting will help rectify rumors, allegations, and denials between the two companies. However, will the assembly further the divide between Ripple and Coinbase? Or, will it reconcile the two and usher in the Ripple onto the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange?

 

The Giant Who Dragged His Feet

On February 25th, 2017, Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong denounced Ripple in a post on Twitter calling it a distraction and asked its users to focus on Bitcoin, which, according to him, is “a thousand miles ahead.”

At the time of his statement, the Ripple only defined 3.5% of the market with about $300 million, which paled in comparison to Bitcoin, which represented 81% of the market and housed a $7 billion-dollar market cap. When we look at these numbers, it’s easy to understand Mr. Armstrong’s disdain towards Ripple.



Last year, in August, a petition was launched to influence Coinbase’s management team and managed to collect an impressive 20,000 signatures by the end of the year. Then, on December 15th, 2017, Brian Armstrong made a statement concerning the exchanges and its cryptocurrencies. “… There will be many others accepted by the exchange in 2018.”

His statement only furthered the rumors that the Ripple may soon be traded on Coinbase. However, 3 days later, Bitcoin Cash was added instead.

According to some experts, the choice to add Bitcoin Cash was not without its reasons. In fact, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a digital currency which had only just recently been derived from Bitcoin’s Blockchain and although the exchange already traded Bitcoin, many of its user’s portfolios did not claim their Bitcoin Cash. This caused a major liquidity problem for the exchange which was assaulted by an intense demand for cryptocurrency conversions at the end of 2017.

After Armstrong’s comment in 2015, Bitcoin’s market cap had fallen to 41%, while Ripple had established itself at a modest 8.5% with a market cap of nearly $40 billion. Therefore, Mr. Armstrong’s arguments have become nothing more than a moot point.

The Rumor of Ripple Being A Win for All

While Ripple has been slowly weaving its web around the globe, rumors continue to circulate about its potential admittance onto Coinbase. In turn, this has provoked a formal denial from the exchange’s management team last January.

However, these rumors have been a boon to both companies since the more convincing the rumors become, the more the Ripple’s value has increased. For Coinbase, as rumors become more persistent, they have seen an increase in assets which are surely ready to take advantage of the Ripple’s soaring value once it enters the exchange. It should be noted that Bitcoin Cash saw a spike in its value of 130% the day before its arrival on Coinbase.

Still, the suggestion of a future partnership between the two companies remain nothing more than a rumor. But, maybe Coinbase’s new President and Chief Operating Officer, Asiff Hirji, will be able to iron out a solid union between the two entities.

During the interview on CNBC, Mr. Hirji, who already led Bitcoin Cash’s entry onto Coinbase, will be seated next to Ripple’s CEO and maybe the physical proximity of the two leaders will be enough to change the issue.

Still, Ripple remains a cryptocurrency that is all too often associated with rumors and in the past, we have heard reports of potential partnerships with other big-name companies such as Starbucks, MoneyGram, WesternUnion, Google Play, and Amazon.

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