KEY POINTS
- Garlinghouse argued that he doesn't know the 'use case' of Dogecoin
- He also said the crypto industry should be 'more than just speculation'
- Metallicus' CEO said Garlinghouse may be annoyed that DOGE is more 'relevant' than XRP
Dogecoin (DOGE), the world's largest memecoin by market value, continues to gain popularity even as new tokens emerge, but Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse still thinks the token hasn't really achieved anything significant for the cryptocurrency sector.
During the Consensus 2024 event last week, the CEO of the currency exchange and remittance network behind the XRP digital asset, said the crypto market has to be "more than just speculation." He went on to say that he has received a lot of hate for talking about speculative coins, but he will still express his thoughts on memecoins, specifically the token themed after internet celebrity dog Kabosu.
Dogecoin was trading in the red for the past seven days.
"I don't think Dogecoin has been a good thing for the industry. And I'm not anti-Dogecoin, but it's like, I don't know what the use case is. I don't know, like, are there projects being built to solve real utility?" he argued.
Garlinghouse's comments triggered a wave of defensive comments from X (formerly Twitter) users, who believe that DOGE has potential and is driving change in the digital assets sector.
Marshall Hayner, the CEO of blockchain crypto banking network Metallicus, said Garlinghouse was indirectly saying that he doesn't like "the idea that Dogecoin has become more popular and relevant than XRP."
One user, who goes by @supremebeme and is followed by former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, said he's "still trying to figure out what XRP is even for." Another user said the Ripple chief was criticizing DOGE "while XRP prints lower day by day."
"DOGE is truly the closest thing to Bitcoin in crypto. Abandoned by its creators and reclaimed by the people," one user said. "Elon [Musk] knows," another user said of DOGE's use case in the industry.
Musk, the owner of X and the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is known for being a fan of Dogecoin. In 2019, the tech titan said DOGE "might be my fav cryptocurrency." In March, he said Dogecoin payments should be enabled for Tesla, his electric vehicle company.
This is not the first time Garlinghouse targeted the popular memecoin. In 2021, he said the coin "has some inflationary dynamics itself that would make me reluctant to hold it."
Meanwhile, DOGE has been down over 8% in the last days, as per data from CoinGecko. On the other hand, it has been up by 0.30% in the last 24 hours and has a staggering $21 billion market capitalization. It remains leads the memecoin pack in market value, followed by Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Pepe (PEPE).