Ripple's XRP is tumbling while bitcoin climbs

XRP is down 13% Friday while bitcoin is up 8%.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse is defending the company against negative claims made by the New York Times on Friday.

Ripple's XRP cryptocurrency slumped as much as 34% Friday morning, trading down to $2.45 a coin, after New York Times reporter Nathaniel Popper said he was unable to verify many of the cooperating banks the company had previously announced. CEO Brad Garlinghouse denied those claims.

Meanwhile bitcoin, the only cryptocurrency worth more than XRP by market cap, was trading up 7.9% at $16,465. Here's Popper:

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse responded, saying that his company had set up interviews for Popper, and that he would be able to verify the its claims by speaking to those people. It's not clear the subjects of those interviews, or whether they had actually been scheduled.

Ripple has been on a tear since late last year, exploding in value by over 37,000% — making it the second-largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $115.1 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.com

Those massive gains have made many of its founders, who own billions of the digital XRP tokens, millionaires. Chris Larsen, who co-founded the company but no longer serves as an executive, owns 5.19 billion XRP, worth more than $12 billion at Friday's exchange rate.

Ripple touts its XRP cryptocurrency as a liquidity solution for global payments and money transfers. Many of XRP's gains correlate with agreements signed with major banks around the world, including Britain's Standard Chartered, which has also invested in the company.

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