A fresh burst of verbal shrapnel from on-chain investigator ZachXBT has reignited the long-running feud between the sleuth and the XRP community, with Ripple again cast as the outlier among major stable-asset ecosystems.
The exchange began after WatcherGuru reported on X + that Circle, the issuer of USD Coin (USDC), has applied to become a federally regulated national trust bank in the United States. Within minutes, ZachXBT—whose meticulous wallet-tracking has underpinned investigations into more than $100 million in blockchain thefts—accused Circle of turning a blind eye to sanctioned North Korean activity.
“Circle / USDC is the primary infra used by DPRK IT workers to facilitate payments. They currently do NOTHING to detect / freeze the activity while boasting about compliance… I can point out high 8 figs in recent volume,” he wrote, adding that the indifference is symptomatic of “the crime super cycle.”
Tether, Circle, Paxos All More Trustworthy Than Ripple?
An XRP supporter swiftly attempted to redirect the criticism: “So you’re saying we should be using RLUSD instead, eh?”—a reference to Ripple’s yet-to-launch, asset-backed stablecoin. ZachXBT’s reply was unambiguous: “I trust Circle, Paxos, or Tether infinitely more than Ripple.”
Pressed to justify preferring Tether—whose opaque reserves have drawn scrutiny from US and EU regulators—over Ripple, he gave a terse rationale: “They all at least have organic users whereas Ripple does not and theirs comes from misrepresenting paid partnerships to make it appear like adoption.”
The XRP advocate denounced that assessment as “lazy,” citing integrations with AeonPay, Alchemy Pay and “millions of merchants,” and argued that paying for partnerships is an industry-wide growth tactic. ZachXBT did not further elaborate, but the latest salvo is consistent with a trail of earlier broadsides.
In March 2025 he asserted that a legitimate layer-1 chain can be gauged by the presence of native stablecoins from the “big three” issuers—Circle, Tether and Paxos. “Both ADA and XRP have zero from major stablecoin issuers…” he wrote at the time.
In January 2025 he highlighted what he characterized as opaque treasury flows, noting that more than $109 million in XRP had moved from wallet rhREXVHV938ToGkdJQ9NCYEY4x8kSEtjna, activated by Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, to exchanges including Coinbase, Bitstamp and Bybit in a single month. “Well I guess it’s a good thing no one stalks XRP transfers from wallets tied to the founders/foundation,” he remarked sarcastically.
Responding to a February 2024 plea to investigate an alleged XRP scam address, he quipped that the wallet in question could not have “scammed more than the XRP founders constantly dumping 9 figs on bag-holders.”
Taken together, the remarks sketch a researcher who, while frequently critical of compliance practices at the stablecoin heavyweights, nevertheless views Ripple as uniquely untrustworthy—chiefly for what he deems manufactured network adoption and persistent insider selling.
At press time Ripple Labs, Circle, Paxos and Tether had not publicly responded to the latest remarks. XRP traded at $2.1978.
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