XRP’s ISO 20022 Saga: The Great Deception Unveiled 😱

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Ah, the never-ending circus of crypto narratives! Once again, XRP finds itself at the center of a fiery debate over its alleged “ISO 20022 compliance.” It seems the distinction between Ripple-the corporate titan building payment software-and the XRP Ledger-the decentralized network settling transactions-is as blurry as ever. Enter Jake Claver, an investor who boldly proclaimed that XRP was the first cryptocurrency to prioritize ISO 20022 compliance. He even threw in some jaw-dropping stats about $434 billion in daily transactions 🤑 and painted ISO 20022 as the golden bridge connecting traditional banking to blockchain. Naturally, this post went viral faster than you can say “crypto hype train.” But then… cue the dramatic music 🎵.

Matt Hamilton, a former Ripple bigwig, stepped in with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. On August 12, he declared: “XRP did not prioritize ISO 20022 whatsoever. There is literally nothing in the XRP Ledger codebase or network that has anything at all to do with ISO 20022.” Ouch! Hamilton didn’t stop there; he doubled down, calling the narrative a “charade perpetuated by scammers like yourself” 😈. For years, he’s been debunking the myth of “ISO-compliant coins,” pointing out that ISO 20022 is a messaging standard for institutions-not something tokens magically inherit.

The rebuttal didn’t end with Hamilton’s fiery words. When another user claimed cryptocurrencies need APIs to integrate with ISO 20022, Hamilton coolly agreed-but reminded everyone that the XRP Ledger lacks such an API. And when someone argued Ripple uses ISO 20022 on RippleNet, Hamilton clarified: “RippleNet can work with ISO 20022 compliant messages. But the XRP Ledger? Nope, no functionality there.” Claver later admitted his post should’ve said “Ripple” instead of “XRP,” but Hamilton wasn’t buying it: “Replace ‘XRP’ with ‘Ripple,’ and the tweet still makes zero sense.” Classic Hamilton-no nonsense allowed! 🙅‍♂️

Beneath the social-media drama lies a deeper issue: the industry’s struggle to define what ISO 20022 actually means. Spoiler alert-it’s not about blockchains or tokens. It’s a global framework for financial messaging, enabling richer, machine-readable data across banks and markets. Think SWIFT upgrading cross-border payments or central banks harmonizing domestic systems. These are discussions about message schemas and integration timelines-not magical token properties. So why does Ripple talk about ISO 20022? Because RippleNet interoperates with banks using these standards. But let’s be clear: that doesn’t make XRP an “ISO-compliant coin.” Compliance lives in messaging formats and operational processes, not shiny digital assets 💎.

Does this mean XRP is useless in ISO 20022 workflows? Not at all! Hamilton himself admits anyone can use the ledger for payments, and RippleNet can translate ISO 20022 messages into internal calls for settlement. What ticks him off is the lazy rhetoric conflating corporate messaging compliance with token-level attributes. After all, implying regulatory privilege or inevitable riches based on buzzwords is just… well, shady 🕶️.

At press time, XRP traded at $3.22. Will the market care about this mess? Probably not. But hey, at least we got some entertainment out of it! 🍿

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2025-08-13 13:49