Ripple Exec’s Resurfaced Tweets: Did Coinbase Refuse To List XRP On Purpose?

Ripple's CTO Emeritus David Schwartz has alleged, through resurfaced social media posts, that Coinbase deliberately refused to list XRP and solicited payment from Ripple prior to listing consideration—claims now fueling significant community speculation as regulatory clarity evolves in 2026.

Ripple’s CTO Emeritus X Posts Reveal Coinbase XRP Listing Saga

Crypto pundit Digital Asset Investor drew attention to old X posts from the Ripple executive in which he discussed the Coinbase XRP listing story and a hypothetical scenario in which Ripple was asked to pay listing fees for XRP. In the first X post, which was made back in May 2023, Schwartz said, “The story of Coinbase listing XRP is the only story I most wish I could tell that I can’t.”

The Ripple CTO Emeritus’ statement was in response to a question by another X user who asked how much the firm likely paid Coinbase to list XRP. This has raised speculations that the exchange may have initially refused to list XRP. In June 2023, Schwartz made another X post in which he described a “hypothetical” scenario in which an exchange refused to list XRP despite it being in its interest. 

Instead, the exchange asked Ripple to pay millions before it could list XRP and told Ripple it would have listed XRP a while ago if the crypto firm hadn’t existed. The CTO Emeritus said they finally reached an agreement with the exchange, and then the exchange listed XRP. Upon XRP’s listing, Schwartz said the altcoin accounted for 20% of the exchange’s revenue. 

Schwartz’s prior post in May 2023, in which he mentioned Coinbase, has led members of the XRP community to conclude that the Ripple CTO Emeritus was likely referring to Coinbase in the hypothetical scenario he painted. 

The Impact Of The SEC Lawsuit

It is worth noting that Coinbase had listed XRP before the SEC lawsuit against Ripple in December 2020, but moved to delist the token in 2021 as the lawsuit took shape. This was based on the SEC’s claim that XRP was a security. The crypto exchange then relisted XRP in July 2023 after Judge Analisa Torres declared that XRP wasn’t a security. 

In his hypothetical scenario, Schwartz said that a litigation adversary used the fact that they paid money for XRP’s listing to imply that the crypto firm was using money to unfairly boost XRP’s adoption or liquidity. However, the CTO Emeritus said they simply paid the money to avoid their existence hurting the XRP ecosystem. The XRP price was negatively impacted during the lawsuit, which lasted for five years. 

At the time of writing, the XRP price is trading at around $1.32, down over 2% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.