An American Express–XRP partnership rumor is debunked, and fake hype triggers market turbulence

Gate News message: The rumor that American Express and XRP were teaming up—something the market has been watching closely in recent days—has ultimately failed to materialize. On March 30, American Express officially announced that it would become the NFL’s official payments partner for pre-sale tickets and on-site experiences, but the announcement did not mention Ripple or its blockchain network XRPL. In the months prior, influential figures in the XRP ecosystem repeatedly claimed that American Express would adopt XRP, even citing charts, meeting videos, and audio clips—stoking so-called “great partnerships.”

This misleading promotion stems from a real pilot in 2017. Back then, American Express and Ripple ran a cross-border payments pilot between the United States and the United Kingdom, but they did not use the XRP token. Ripple executives at the time emphasized that the technology was only used for fiat conversion and did not involve blockchain tokens. Nevertheless, some influencers and opinion leaders in the XRP community have, over the years, continued to repeat and repackage this old news—mixing up RippleNet cooperation with the use of XRP tokens—while labeling posts on social media as “breaking” and “latest news,” which sparked widespread engagement and hype.

False information has even been used to promote other crypto assets. Some content creators bundled and released a nonexistent American Express–XRP partnership along with promotions for third-party tokens, misleading investors. Protos records show that over the years, Ripple’s various partnership announcements—including projects with MoneyGram and the Central Bank of Bhutan—have barely translated into real-world XRP token usage.

The market reaction has also been clear. So far this year, XRP is down by about 29%, while American Express continues to sell NFL tickets in USD. Analysts noted that rumors like these fake partnership claims not only disrupt investors’ expectations, but also reflect the lack of transparency and high risk involved in information dissemination within the crypto community. When tracking developments related to Ripple and XRP, investors should stay alert and avoid being misled by social media hype.