Ripple (XRP)
Ripple's XRP token isn't a real object but if it were and if one were to get a pile of them and a nice camera, this is what it would look like (via Shutterstock).
Media,  Ripple

CNBC’s Ripple/Coinbase booking gets fans all hopped up on hope

Just don’t expect a major announcement on Tuesday’s episode of Fast Money

By  / March 6, 2018 /

Ripple fans sometimes let their dreams get the better of them.

Take the latest rally in the company’s token. On Monday, the XRP gained about 20 percent with a rumor fueled by a simple booking on CNBC.

Fast Money, a show on the financial news network, booked Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinhouse and Coinbase President Asiff Hirji to appear on Tuesday. When promotional assets started to appear on CNBC, rumors about the two companies followed suit.

Fast Money
Every day is Crypto Day on CNBC’s Fast Money (via Reddit).

Reddit threads soon appeared where Ripple fans proved they collectively lost their minds. One such thread, in the r/CryptoCurrency subreddit, has over 400 posts and counting. A top-voted comment from a person calling himself MistaJones said:

“This timing is interesting since Coinbase announced they are adding 500 new support reps with 90 of them starting the day before this airs, March 5th.. Could it finally be? :D”

Coinbase isn’t the only exchange that will be adding employees. Kraken and Circle, which recently announced its acquisition of Poloniex, are also planning to up headcount.

And while some other comments on Reddit were thoughtful, many were just plain over the top. Alas, their hopes for Coinbase to start charging absurdly high fees on yet another cryptocurrency will likely be dashed on Tuesday.

It’s not the first time Garlinghouse has appeared in the same public forum as a Coinbase executive. A month ago, he was at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit on the same day as Coinbase’s vice president and general Manager, Adam White. No announcement of such sort was made then. And on that day, like Tuesday’s Fast Money booking, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong was not the person speaking for the company.

CNBC itself reported on the rumors and threw at least some cold water on them by noting, “those two are appearing in separate and unrelated interviews on the show.”

Coinbase issued a statement that there are no decisions regarding adding new currencies to its namesake platform or to its GDAX platform.

To cover all bases, we decided to reach out to Ripple board member Ken Kurson, the founder of Modern Consensus. He simply responded, “I have no info.”

Tom Channick, Ripple’s director of corporate communications, emailed us to say, “On the XRP being listed on Coinbase question, we don’t comment on rumor or speculation.”

We even emailed the executive producer for Fast Money, Maxwell Meyers [disclosure: this writer worked for Meyers at CNBC a few years ago] but no response has yet been received. Then again, as Meyers is the consummate showman, he’s most likely not going to confirm or deny a market-moving rumor like this. After all, keeping everyone guessing guarantees that a few thousand hardcore Ripple fans will be watching every minute of the show. They will do so because maybe—just maybe—their hopes will be realized, even if they’re repeatedly told it’s not happening any time soon.

And what’s the crypto market without some hope? One with just greed and fear.

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Lawrence Lewitinn, CFA was the founding editor in chief of Modern Consensus. Disclosure: Lewitinn owns no cryptocurrencies in his portfolio.