Ripple Chairman Chris Larsen Confirms “Personal Accounts” Were Hacked for $112.5M Worth of XRP
The XRP token experienced a sharp decline of over 5% on Wednesday following speculation that the network had been hacked, resulting in the theft of $112.5 million worth of XRP. However, Ripple's Executive Chairman, Chris Larsen, later clarified on X (formerly Twitter) that the breach was limited to his "personal XRP accounts" and not to Ripple itself.
Larsen stated that there was “authorized access” to his “personal XRP accounts” and they were able to promptly identify the issue and notify exchanges to freeze the affected addresses. He also confirmed that law enforcement is already involved in the investigation.
However, the initial alarm was raised by prominent on-chain sleuth ZachXBT, who claimed on X that 213 million XRP tokens had been siphoned out of a large wallet on the XRP Ledger blockchain. The stolen funds were subsequently laundered through multiple exchanges. This caused some to question why Larsen did not inform the public of the incident, and only made the announcement after ZachXBT’s tweets. Furthermore, although Larsen clearly stated in his post that the accounts affected were “not Ripple,” some speculate that they are closely-linked.
Ripple (XRP) is the sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap. It is the native token of the XRP Ledger, a blockchain specializing in payments. Ripple Labs, the company behind the network, utilizes XRP to power tools like RippleNet, its cross-border payments platform designed for financial institutions. In 2020, Ripple Labs achieved a significant victory over the SEC over XRP’s classification as a security.
