Leak Alert: Pick a Side or Lose XRP – Larry David Style

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Great, more old emails about crypto drama. The Epstein files, you say? Perfect timing for a subject that already needs a director’s cut and sweat stains. It’s the early days of crypto tribalism, and somehow people are arguing about which blockchain to cheer for like it’s a sports bar argument at 2 a.m.-with more spreadsheets and fewer nachos.

Apparently, big-name investors were nudged to treat XRP and Stellar XLM supporters as threats to Bitcoin’s universe. Yes, it’s 2014, and the only thing more contentious than a whiteboard is a group chat with a CTO named David Schwartz weighing loyalty like it’s a dette curve. Classic case of ‘we’re all in this together, except if you root for the other horse.’

The “Stellar isn’t so stellar” email

July 31, 2014. Austin Hill writes to a who’s-who of the tech-venture elite-Reid Hoffman, Joichi Ito, and yes, Jeffrey Epstein, because why not pile on the names? The email is titled “Stellar isn’t so Stellar,” which is the kind of headline that makes you wonder if honesty is a crime in crypto circles.

Hill argues that Ripple and Jed McCaleb’s new Stellar are bad for the ecosystem, and that investors backing both XRP and XLM are just muddying the waters. Translation: two horses in the same race distract from the glory of one horse-your horse. He writes that backing both “hurts the ecosystem we are building.”

Hill suggests reducing or taking your allocation away, and offers a call to explain the issues. It’s not subtle: support for XRP or XLM = enemy status. It’s the kind of logic that makes you long for a simple problem, like choosing between decaf and regular coffee, except with million-dollar investments and a lot more yelling.

The ultimatum: “pick a horse”

Leonidas Hadjiloizou says Hill used “allocation” as leverage. In venture capital, being allowed to invest in a promising company-Blockstream, in this case-is treated like a privilege and a test you didn’t study for.

Hill threatened to “reduce or take… allocation away” from Epstein and Ito regarding Blockstream. In plain English: you can’t invest in Blockstream if you keep supporting Ripple or Stellar. Pick a side, he says; two horses in one race? It’s a tragedy. The race, the horses, the investors-everything’s a little too dramatic for a Friday afternoon.

He basically forced them to choose one side of the track. And you can hear Schwartz weigh in, wistful and practical: “The sad part is, we really are all in this together, and this kind of attitude hurts everyone in the space.” Yes, it hurts everyone, like a blender with a missing lid-lucky us, it’s all about loyalty and not about who’s actually right.

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2026-02-01 12:00