Gary Cardone, a seasoned investor and twin brother of entrepreneur Grant Cardone, announced he sold his entire XRP position at $2.71. Posting his today on X, Cardone, drawing from his 40 years of financial experience, cited six personal investment rules as the driving force behind his exit.
In his post, Cardone told XRP investors he wishes “they get stupid rich,” but admitted he doesn’t think that will happen. “My best hopium is out to each of you,” he continued.
The American-born explained how he avoids assets with unclear supply-and-demand dynamics unless he has a significant advantage. He also stated that he prefers to steer clear if an investment cannot be “ drawn on a whiteboard.”
The Chargebacks911 co-founder criticized the tendency of some investors to focus on price rather than intrinsic value.
“Avoid people who know the price of everything but the value of nothing. Never confuse short-term noise with a long-term investment/plan/goal.”
His final point reinforced his philosophy of avoiding the herd mentality, calling for investors to tread clear of popular market trends.
“Never follow the crowd…Great wealth comes from consolidated, long-term bets,” he concluded.
XRP community responds: Why did you buy in the first place?
Cardone’s remarks drew overwhelming numbers of “thumbs down” responses from XRP supporters, including one X user going by the pseudonym Vantozio, who argued that uneducated investors have unfairly dismissed the XRP community.
“We have held through years of an SEC lawsuit that was undoubtedly an untruthful and misleading case lobbied by holders of the Ethereum Foundation,” he wrote, riding on allegations that Ethereum backers, with the help of former Chair Gary Gensler, directed the agency to target Ripple.
Others questioned why the entrepreneur bought XRP, bashing him for breaking the rules he had listed.
“You posted those rules… yet bought at some point… you don’t even follow your own rules.” said one disgruntled XRP supporter.
‼️ RULE SEVEN: NEVER TRUST GARYS ‼️ https://t.co/5xo5n4gQfZ pic.twitter.com/E71KW9QmnU
— XRP DROPZ (@DROPZXRP) February 21, 2025
The question of XRP’s nature, especially regarding centralization, is a discourse that began around December 2020, when the SEC sued Ripple for offering the token to investors as a security. A Reddit discussion on r/Cryptocurrency asserted that XRP is centralized due to its reliance on Ripple’s Unique Node List (UNL) to validate transactions.
Gary claims that because Ripple selects these nodes, it controls the network. However, one argues the entity does not control all validators and that users can operate independent nodes while maintaining a consensus.
The user pointed out that only 2% of XRP validators are owned or operated by Ripple, arguing that XRP’s network is “vastly more decentralized than BTC and ETH” and that Bitcoin’s high number of forks stems from its lack of leadership and governance.
Investor Jason Calacanis slams XRP as “controlled security”
Earlier this week, in a lengthy X post, American entrepreneur and angel investor Jason Calacanis, known for his early stakes in Uber and Robinhood, coined XRP “a centralized controlled security.”
Calacanis claimed most crypto KOLs admit Ripple’s native token directly opposes Bitcoin’s principles, reducing his confidence in XRP’s feasibility.
The 54-year-old angel investor explicitly declared he is not supportive of the SEC’s hints at approving a spot XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF), warning that it could “make securities law will worthless.”
He predicted that such an event would lead to market chaos, with startups and major holders offloading large portions of their tokens onto retail investors.
“There will be chaos in the markets as a million startups, funds, and grifters start dumping 50% of their coins on retail while slowly selling the 50% they own and control.”
He ended his post by saying XRP should be limited to sophisticated investors who fully understand the risks associated with the token.
