Ex-Ripple Official Admits to Running Market Maker on XRP Ledger
Former director of developer relations at Ripple, Matt Hamilton, commented on allegations of making money from XRP speculation and admitted to running a market maker on XRP Ledger.
You can look at the transaction history on the XRP Ledger. I’ve been running a market maker on the XRP Ledger since 2017. I openly talk about it – including in my CV and my interview joining Ripple. This is not some grand conspiracy you’ve just discovered.
— Matt Hamilton (@HammerToe) February 27, 2023
According to Hamilton, there is no secret to this, and the developer himself has openly stated this before, even putting it on his CV when he joined Ripple. The market maker has been operating on a decentralized exchange on XRPL since 2017, the developer says. In doing so, he operated on a market-neutral strategy, placing passive buy and sell orders, but with the aim of making a profit. It is not known whether the former Ripple official is using the bot now, but a year ago it was still running.
Controversy arises within XRP community
Some members of the community were quick to rebuke Hamilton, claiming that he was engaging in shady activities and influencing the market.
The developer, however, dismissed all accusations of manipulation, reminding everyone that the orders were purely passive and were placed on either side of the order book. The market maker bot does not care about XRP price action — it simply buys and sells when the price reaches a certain value, he explains.
As for transparency, Hamilton says he, like any trader, is not obliged to disclose every transaction. Nevertheless, anyone can view the transaction history on XRP Ledger, the blockchain developer noted.
