Ripple's Expanding Presence in Derivatives
Amid Ripple’s growing presence in the derivatives market, XRP community figures have revived claims that Amazon supposedly bought 5 billion XRP a decade ago. This discussion re-emerged after analysts called attention to Bitnomial’s move to launch Botanical, its CFTC-regulated perpetual futures trading platform, in October 2024.
Ripple's Strategic Investment in Bitnomial
For context, Ripple backed this launch by leading a $25 million funding round. At the time, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse applauded Bitnomial’s plan to bring offshore-style trading structures into the U.S. derivatives market while building a regulated environment for assets such as XRP. He also highlighted Bitnomial’s plan to use Ripple’s RLUSD for settlement and said this approach raised the standard for the entire industry.
Although these developments happened in October 2024, XRP commentator Cowboy recently brought them back into the spotlight. Interestingly, this prompted another commentary from Digital Asset Investor (DAI), another well-known figure in the community.
The Connection to Amazon's Alleged XRP Holdings
Responding to Cowboy, DAI said that the Bitnomial-Ripple announcement aligned with predictions from Kendra Hill, a controversial XRP community member. He then questioned whether her previous claim about Amazon holding billions of XRP might also have merit. Notably, DAI’s reaction suggested that he saw the Ripple–Bitnomial relationship as possible support for Hill’s earlier claims about Ripple’s interest in the derivatives market.
For the uninitiated, Hill became a controversial figure in the XRP community seven years ago after she started a Steemit blog in July 2017. She repeatedly claimed insider knowledge and predicted several bullish outcomes for XRP, including its future role in the global financial system. Years before the Bitnomial announcement, Hill argued that Ripple used cross-border payments as a testing phase. According to her, Ripple aimed to manage every transaction in the derivatives market and insisted that the company kept this vision quiet because it had not yet completed a key part of the system, which she called Codius. Once Ripple supported Bitnomial in 2024, some XRP holders, including DAI, believed Hill may have been right about Ripple’s interest in derivatives.
Kendra Hill's Controversial Claims
This belief led DAI to revisit one of Hill’s most controversial claims: her statement that Amazon allegedly secured a massive XRP position. Back then, Hill said Amazon and Ripple negotiated a deal in 2015 that gave Amazon control over 5 billion XRP, representing over 5% of XRP’s total supply. She also said that this XRP remained locked until both parties decided to announce the partnership.
Hill also explained why she believed Ripple and Amazon never talked about this supposed deal. She argued that XRP’s price never reacted to partnership announcements because XRP did not yet serve any real purpose. She said the price would surge once new use cases arrived. According to her earlier statements, major partners preferred to keep quiet so institutional investors could accumulate XRP while the price stayed low.
Meanwhile, to support Hill’s claims, DAI also pointed to a comment Ripple CTO David Schwartz made in October 2025. Schwartz explained that Ripple could sell rights to receive future escrowed XRP or even sell the accounts those escrows eventually unlock into, although the XRP itself could not enter the market until its planned release date.
Despite all these discussions, no statement from Ripple, Amazon, or any of their executives confirms that the alleged partnership ever existed. Notably, Hill also predicted that the announcement would arrive in March 2019, but nothing happened. She also claimed in 2018 that XRP would reach $50 in 24 hours, which also never occurred.