BitMEX recently introduced the trading of a new perpetual swap for XRP/USD. Its CEO, Arthur Hayes, decided to celebrate the news by ridiculing XRP and justified its listing by saying, “it’s worth more than zero,” so who cares.
Rarely do you see comments in the cryptocurrency industry as upfront as Arthur Hayes’s recent mockery of Ripple’s XRP. The BITMEX CEO decided to announce the listing of XRP/USD perpetual swaps with some ridicule. Calling it “dogsh*t,” he writes that “It’s worth more than zero so it’s time to trade the USD pair on BitMEX. Boo-Yaka-sha!”
Is it called Ripple, XRP, or dogshit? Who knows, who cares. It’s worth more than zero so it’s time to trade the USD pair on BitMEX. Boo-Yaka-sha! https://t.co/pa3T5vd5kl
— Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) February 4, 2020
The comment was somewhat out of character for the head of one of the largest exchanges in the world. It was essentially confirmation that BitMex does not care what cryptocurrency it lists—all it cares about is that it’s “worth more than zero.” Those are some low standards.
The replies to Hayes’s comments were mostly negative, but some found the CEO’s mockery of XRP to be amusing.
Arthur finally listened to the community, let's send #XRP to sub 10 cents #Roadto10c https://t.co/SheGXqViYv
— Doria (@Doriaksl) February 4, 2020
Oh, that's classy. A comment like that has karma.
— CryptoEri (@sentosumosaba) February 4, 2020
On the flip side, those traders who believe XRP to be a cash-grab by Ripple can now more easily short it. Still, the comment by Hayes is simply bad optics for one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges. According to CoinMarketCap, the exchange boasts some $3.3B in daily trading volume at the time of writing. It remains among the most popular exchanges for margin and futures trading.
BitMEX has faced significant controversy in the past, but few were caused by its outspoken CEO directly. In November, the exchange suffered a breach that exposed the customer emails of some 40,000 users. BitMEX never thoroughly explained the cause of the breach, but it led to an EXODUS of users looking for alternatives, as BeInCrypto has previously reported.
Hayes’s comments are a low blow to XRP, which has seen its ‘team unlocks’ every month become the butt of many jokes on cryptocurrency Twitter. Every month, 1B XRP is controversially unlocked from escrow. However, XRP is doing well on the daily charts today and is up +6.73%. Whether or not these gains will hold remains to be seen. The third-largest cryptocurrency was among the worst performers in 2019.
