Monero lead developer Riccardo Spagni is defending his honor after a spoof video he released coincided with the altcoin dropping 20 percent.
In a series of Twitter exchanges, Spagni, under whose direction Monero has ballooned in value over the past six months, sought to claim his coin was not geared for short-term profit-taking.
“1 XMR is still worth 1 XMR, it's a perfect store of value,” he tweeted.
Spagni faced a deluge of criticism after publishing a send-off of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance which he dubbed the Monero Enterprise Alliance.
"The dig at the world’s biggest altcoin, which Spagni sarcastically described as “tonight's massive, game-changing, earth-shattering Monero announcement,” appeared to rattle investors as Monero dropped from around $58 to around $45 within hours."
The developer began responding to outbursts from users seemingly now in the red, but these were soon balanced by votes of confidence, including, conspicuously, from major online marketplace Bitsquare.
Broader reactions also supported Monero, claiming Spagni’s move had effectively flushed out shorters from its books.
As of press time, the altcoin had begun reversing Wednesday’s losses to post an average price of $48 according to data from CoinMarketCap. It is still the eighth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, just one place below high flyer Dash.