Ripple Co-Founder Reports $112M XRP Theft Amid Price Drop

XRP (formerly Ripple) co-founder Chris Larsen was hacked yesterday to the tune of 213M XRP – worth approximately USD $112M (AUD $170M) at the time. The news follows a furore on crypto social media, particularly X, as false and misleading reports circled that the Ripple Ledger itself had been hacked after being discovered by X user ZachXBT.

Larsen Confirms Hack, Assures Community Incident Was Isolated to XRP Wallets

Chris Larsen responded to the rumours circling that Ripple had been hacked, emphasising that it was his personal holdings affected and the attack had nothing to do with the broader ecosystem:

This is an isolated incident, and Ripple wallets are secure / were never compromised. We’ve confirmed nearly all the affected funds were converted out of XRP. We’re working with law enforcement…”

Chris Larsen

Current CEO of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse, weighed in on the drama:

Given some irresponsible speculation and reporting, I want to reiterate that NO Ripple-managed wallets were compromised. Full stop.

Brad Garlinghouse

XRP Value Falls Amid Compromise

Although the XRPL network itself is as secure as ever, some in the community are still a little miffed about the optics of the hack. Of course, Larsen is the victim here, and losing hundreds of millions of dollars is a massive blow. But, some XRP holders are lamenting that if the founder of Ripple can’t keep his own assets secure, what does that say about the security of the ecosystem as a whole? 

XRP itself has fallen 1.5% in the past 24 hours and nearly 3% in the last week – and is the only asset in the top ten by market cap to report a red week (to date). However, the negative effects of the hack appear to be minimal for the time being, as the XRP figureheads quickly move into damage control. Hopefully, this will just be a blip on the radar for the global decentralised currency as it looks to achieve widespread adoption over the coming decade.