No CommentsFollowing the events of Friday’s article, prominent crypto world figure, Jesse Powell, a Ripple board member, has announced his intention to part ways with the troubled alt coin.
Ripple is faced with another major setback after the fiasco involving Jed MacCaleb’s announcement, to investors on a forum, disclosing his plans of liquidating the entirety of his XRP holdings. Fellow board member and the pioneer investor of XRP, Mr. Jesse Powell, now adds to investor worries following his resignation from the board. The new woes have been attributed to the ‘Ripple effect’ : a tumultuous drop in XRP’s value.
Mr. Powell made his resignation decision public by posting it on the subreddit for Ripple. He had expressed his very personal point of view of Jed MacCaleb’s liquidation announcement and the reasons behind his decision to resign from the board:
“Today I have submitted my resignation from the Board of Ripple Labs. While I care about the people who work there and I wish the company the best, I cannot personally continue to support the business. I believe that the technology and the protocol hold great promise, and have since the beginning, which is why I was the company’s first investor. Since Jed’s departure, the management of the company has taken a different direction. Sadly, the vision Jed and I had for the project in the early days has been lost.”
A lack of solidarity
Jesse Powell’s words displayed an utter dismay at the lack of proper decision making by Ripple. Particularly the decision which allowed vast quantities of XRP to be held by the key members, such as Jed MacCaleb. Powell had assumed the holdings were given to the key members in a caretaker position, and that they would be returned upon XRP stability being established. But as we now know all too clearly, that wasn’t the case with
Jed MacCaleb.
Mr Powell feels that this liquidation of holdings has led to him losing confidence in the direction and future of Ripple. Mr. Powell emphasised this clearly with this statement:
“I’m no longer confident in the management nor the company’s ability to recover from the founders’ perplexing allocation to themselves of 20% of the XRP, which I had hoped until recently would be returned. Prior to Jed’s departure from Ripple, I had asked the founders to return their XRP to the company. Jed agreed but Chris declined—leaving a stalemate. This afternoon, I revisited the allocation discussion with the pair and again, where Jed was open, Chris was hostile.”
Perhaps as an afterthought, Mr. Powell added that no hostility or ill will was intended to the people working in Ripple’s organisation , and that his decision to resign was due to his lack of ability to accept and conform to the current sent decisions being unfolded.
“As an investor, of course, I hope that Ripple Labs will overcome its hurdles and prove my lack of confidence misplaced. Unfortunately, unlike the founders, I don’t have swathes of XRP to dump if I don’t think it’s working out.”
Ripples and waves
With the recent major upsets in Ripple’s core team, investor confidence and morale is at an all time low. The bulk of the backlash is composed of investors dumping XRP at a frantic pace and massive quantities. The value of XRP continues to slide into an abyss, one that investors are not confident of climbing back out of. While a small handful of investors who believe in the technological potential of Ripple are holding on, the vast majority are afraid that other key team members in Ripple will follow Jed MacCaleb’s lead and proceed to liquidate their holdings in the near future.
Jesse Powell’s exit from Ripple merely signifies the end of a working relationship. Mr. Powell is the CEO of the crypto currency exchange, Kraken. Kraken has grown to be popular among traders, and it’s no doubt that Jesse Powell will have no lack of involvement or new investment opportunities within the crypto world.
The real loss belongs to Ripple, investors may see this as a sign of instability within the company’s core. If Ripple is to outlast this trial, they have to do everything they possibly can to stabilize the value of XRP, to increase and ultimately regain the confidence of their investors, and reclaim their former position as a top contender to Bitcoin.
