The disclosure of Ripple Labs Inc.’s overture to purchase Circle Internet Financial for a reported $4 billion to $5 billion has ignited a rare public broadside from within the digital-asset industry itself, while simultaneously spotlighting diverging philosophies about how crypto networks should be commercialized.
Simon Dedic, chief executive of the venture firm Moonrock Capital, took direct aim at Ripple’s approach in a post on X, writing that an attempted takeover of Circle would be “the ultimate example of ‘fake it till you make it’ on steroids.” Dedic alleged that “for a decade” Ripple’s business model has been “hyping up [its] community with empty promises and flashy news—all just to pump the XRP token to absurd, centi-billion-dollar valuations.”
He continued: “Then you sell off your tokens, build a massive war chest, and try to use it to buy one of the most legitimate and profitable companies in the industry. If it weren’t so scammy, I’d almost be impressed by the execution and endurance of Brad Garlinghouse and team.”
Ripple declined to comment on Dedic’s characterization. The company’s acquisition proposal, first reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday, was rebuffed by Circle, which is preparing an initial public offering penciled in for early April and believes the numbers put forward “undervalue the franchise,” according to people familiar with the talks. Circle likewise declined public comment on the approach, reiterating that its near-term focus remains on the IPO process and on the growth of its USDC stablecoin.
Ripple, whose XRP Ledger was designed for cross-border payments and settlement, is no stranger to large cheques. Just last month the San Francisco-based firm agreed to acquire prime-brokerage platform Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, one of the largest deals in crypto to date. The attempted Circle takeover, however, would dwarf that transaction and, if consummated, fold the two largest non-algorithmic dollar-backed stablecoins besides Tether under a new roof.
Ripple = A High Agency Creator
The bid has also rekindled a long-running debate about the role that founding teams and their affiliated foundations should play once a network is live. Hunter Horsley, chief executive officer of Bitwise Asset Management, argued on X that the market often overlooks “the role of creators in commercialization.”
Horsley argued that the episode illustrates the “high-agency creator” model increasingly common among Layer-1 protocols. He set up a spectrum with three archetypes. “No agency creator: Bitcoin. Medium agency creator: Ethereum, Bittensor, etc. High agency creator: Solana, Avalanche, Aptos, Sui, Ripple, etc.”
The Bitwise CEO added that projects in the third category “have Labs and foundations alongside them with resources, organized talent, and a desire to foster adoption.” In his view, the capacity of such entities to “bend fate to win” means that “the best product doesn’t always win. Sometimes it’s the best go-to-market. Are you factoring this dimension into your expectations?”
In other words, Horsley sees Ripple’s acquisitive streak as a textbook example of high-agency strategy in action, contrasting with protocols such as Bitcoin that rely almost exclusively on emergent community coordination. Dedic’s critique, by contrast, frames Ripple’s approach as opportunistic asset-flipping financed by treasury XRP sales.
At press time, XRP traded at $2.22.
