As regulatory concerns over XRP — the earth's 3rd-biggest crypto nugget — have intensified, some celebrities are stepping in to phonation more FUD nearly the coin.

Ben Askren, former UFC fighter and known Bitcoin (BTC) bull, has driven more scepticism toward XRP with a brusque tweet on Jan. 28: "I call up XRP is a scam."

Askren loves Bitcoin and Litecoin, not XRP

Askren'south latest cryptocurrency verdict builds on a groundwork of previous endorsements of other cryptocurrencies. The famous one-time Olympic wrestler is not but bullish on Bitcoin, but also supports Charlie Lee-founded Litecoin (LTC), the 7th biggest cryptocurrency past market cap equally of printing time.

In January 2022, Askren was purportedly sponsored by the Litecoin Foundation as the mixed martial arts fighter for UFC 235 event. Subsequently, the UFC fighter appeared on his Instagram wearing a Litecoin-branded t-shirt.

The glory has also promoted Bitcoin on his Twitter in Oct 2022:

"Just bought more BTC using  @eToro was really easy, at present all of y'all twitter geniuses can tell me Crypto is a scam while my assets go upwards!"

Askren has besides recently retweeted to confirm his support of both Bitcoin and Litecoin:

Source: Twitter

Source: Twitter

Askren's comment comes amid worsened situation around XRP

As Askren has been known every bit a shill for BTC and LTC for a while, a user on Twitter asked him a question: "The fact @Benaskren is staying serenity on XRP tells me its going to take it a long fourth dimension if ever to moon." Askren's verdict didn't take long, and a role of the crypto community on Twitter expressed some negative stance toward XRP, while the tweet has amassed over two,000 likes as of press time.

Askren's statement about XRP comes amongst an already worsened situation around the coin equally XRP dropped over 40% from $0.364 in 2022 to $0.183 in December, marking a ii-year depression. The situation has been exacerbated by ascent concerns over the unclear regulatory status of XRP'due south issuing company, Ripple, which faces a course-activeness lawsuit alleging that it held an unregistered sale of securities.

Despite all this, CEO Brad Garlinghouse has recently hinted at an initial public offering for Ripple, which undoubtedly has some implications for the fate of altcoin.

At press time, XRP is trading at $0.238, up over 1% over the by 24 hours, following a major green tendency on crypto markets.