Several disclosures have suggested that the US Treasury has created an account on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) amid regulatory shifts, but there’s a catch.
DROPoholic, an XRPL community account, was one of the first to make these disclosures, suggesting that the purported US Treasury wallet was already interacting with a Bank of America account.
Details of the XRPL Accounts
For context, data from XRPL explorer Bithomp confirms that the supposed US Treasury wallet was activated yesterday, Jan. 21 at 3:17 UTC. Immediately after activation, the address set its domain to home.treasury.gov, the US Treasury’s official website, and then created trustlines around a fake “Bank of America” token.
The address received 1 trillion “Bank of America” tokens, 1 trillion “BlackRock” tokens and 1 trillion “JPMorgan” tokens. All these assets were actually fake and issued just recently for what appears to be an elaborate scheme from the individuals behind the bogus US Treasury wallet.
The wallet placed multiple trade orders to sell millions of the Bank of America, BlackRock and JPMorgan tokens for XRP. The largest of these orders involved selling off 299 million JPMorgan tokens for 33.23 million XRP at an exchange rate of 0.11 XRP for 1 JPMorgan.
The recent development comes on the back of the inauguration of President Donald Trump, who assumed office on Jan. 20. This has triggered hopes of favorable regulatory shifts, with Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire recently suggesting the President could sign an executive order to allow banks trade and offer crypto easily.
In addition, Brian Moynihan, the CEO of Bank America, confirmed that traditional banks are willing to adopt cryptocurrencies once regulators give them the greenlight. These developments further introduced a sense of legitimacy to these XRP wallets.
Wind Addresses Xumm Verification Tag
Interestingly, XRPScan data confirms that Xaman (formerly Xumm) had verified the wallets. While most proponents already had doubts, this little detail added a twist, with some suggesting it might point to their legitimacy.
Moreover, the individuals behind this scheme also created a fake Evernode token and a World Liberty Financial address. Data also shows that these wallets had also been verified by Xaman, triggering further questions within the XRP community.
Addressing this area, Wietse Wind, founder of Xumm, clarified that XRPScan simply displays data stored on the blockchain, which is publicly accessible. Wind explained that anyone can modify the domain field and issued tokens.
The domain field is a public field on an account on the blockchain, anyone can enter anything there.
Issued tokens can be issued by anyone.
KYC can be done by anyone. It means KYC has been succesfully done, doesn't have to mean someone is affiliated with something.
XRPScan…
— WietseWind (🪝🛠 @ Xaman®, XRPL & Xahau) (@WietseWind) January 21, 2025
In addition, he noted that the KYC verification only confirms that an individual’s identity has been verified, not that they represent a particular entity.
Krippenreiter, a community figure, sought clarification on whether Xumm had actually KYC’d these accounts. Wind investigated and confirmed that all these accounts were KYC-compliant. However, they were created by different individuals, all based in the Philippines.
I just checked. They are all in fact KYC'd. By different people, all from the Philippines.
So there we have it. KYC helps, but it's still no guarantee. One of the challenges of businesses when they actually want to render regulated financial services.
— WietseWind (🪝🛠 @ Xaman®, XRPL & Xahau) (@WietseWind) January 21, 2025
He noted that while KYC ensures identity verification, it does not guarantee relevance or legitimacy. When asked about solutions to this issue, Wind explained that KYC functions as intended. However, he advised users to avoid rushing to conclusions and wait for official confirmation from credible entities.
Essentially, any individual can edit the tag of any address to reflect an organization’s name without having affiliations with the organization or entity. This issue came up last year, when an account with the name “Musk” sprang up within the XRP community.
DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.
