Headline: BIS report crowns XRP holders among the most educated and affluent — community fires back at Chainlink critics as on-chain growth continues
A Bank for International Settlements (BIS) report — highlighted this week by crypto commentator Cool Breeze — ranked XRP holders among the most educated and wealthiest crypto investors, alongside Ethereum. The 2021 study placed Bitcoin owners squarely in the middle and identified Litecoin holders as the least educated cohort. The BIS also noted that, overall, crypto holders tend to have higher-than-average household incomes, with Ethereum, Stellar and XRP topping the income list.
The BIS research pointed to the importance of long-term ownership in shaping these results, estimating that owning a crypto in one year raises the likelihood of ownership the following year by roughly 50%. That pattern dovetails with the reputation of the so-called “XRP Army,” a sizable group of long-term holders who kept their positions through Ripple’s multi-year legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Pro-XRP attorney John Deaton has publicly credited those holders for supporting Ripple’s defense. Deaton and members of the XRP community filed an amicus brief during the case arguing that XRP should not be treated as a security; parts of the litigation outcome later found that programmatic and retail sales were not securities while some institutional sales were treated differently, a nuance that shaped market and regulatory debate.
On-chain analytics firm Santiment says the XRP Ledger is seeing fresh growth: the XRPL now has more than 7.7 million holders, the highest recorded since launch, and earlier in the week active addresses hit a five-week high of 46,767 — a surge that accompanied a roughly 14% price jump that pushed XRP above $1.60 intraday, according to on-chain metrics. (CoinMarketCap data showed the token had pulled back later in the day.)
The uptick in addresses and holders comes as tokenization use cases on XRPL gain traction, and as community members spar with rivals. Chainlink community member Zach Rynes (known as “Chainlink God”) recently labeled XRPL a “ghost chain,” prompting Cool Breeze to urge XRP supporters not to be rattled by what he called a “hate campaign.” Cool Breeze also argued that XRP has outperformed Chainlink versus Bitcoin during recent stretches.
Context and caveats: the BIS study Cool Breeze referenced was published in 2021, and investor demographics and behaviors may have shifted since. Still, the combination of legal developments, active on-chain indicators and vocal community advocacy has put XRP back in the headlines — with implications for adoption, tokenization projects on XRPL, and the broader narrative around which communities drive long-term crypto ownership.
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