Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen’s XRP wallet hacked for estimated $112 million Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen’s XRP wallet hacked for estimated $112 million
Executives emphasized that Ripple's own accounts are unaffected.
2 min read
Updated: Jan. 31, 2024 at 9:02 pm UTC
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Chris Larsen, executive chairman and co-founder of Ripple, said on Jan. 31 that several of his personal XRP accounts had been hacked.
He wrote in a post on X:
“Yesterday, there was unauthorized access to a few of my personal XRP accounts (not Ripple) – we were quickly able to catch the problem and notify exchanges to freeze the affected addresses. Law enforcement is already involved.”
Larsen went on to call the hack an “isolated incident” and reaffirmed that Ripple’s wallets are secure and have not been compromised. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse made a similar comment, writing:
“
Thomas Silkjær, Head of Analytics and Compliance at the XRP Ledger Foundation, provided further details. He said that the crypto exchange WhiteBit alerted his team of suspicious deposits on Jan. 30. Silkjær’s team then informed Larsen of the incident and began cooperating in the investigation.
Stolen XRP likely totals $112 million
Larsen and other Ripple-related individuals have not confirmed the amount stolen. However, on-chain sleuth ZachXBT previously reported that the addresses in question were hacked for 213 million XRP, or $112.5 million.
He also noted that the stolen funds have been laundered through exchanges, including MEXC, Gate, Binance, Kraken, OKX, HTX, and HitBTC.
ZachXBT speculated that Larsen’s private keys were compromised but did not suggest any further details on how this may have occurred.
ZachXBT initially suggested that Ripple itself was attacked. Following Larsen’s official statement, he continued to downplay any meaningful distinction between Ripple’s corporate accounts and Larsen’s personal accounts, writing sarcastically: “Totally completely separate entities … wink wink.”
That comment seemingly refers to the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission’s past allegations. The agency previously claimed that Larsen and Garlinghouse held 20 billion XRP at an early date and engaged in unregistered personal token sales alongside Ripple’s corporate sales. The SEC dropped all charges against both executives in 2023; Ripple was partially cleared of related charges.
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Mike Dalton
Before transitioning to crypto writing in 2018, Mike studied library and information sciences. Currently, he resides on Canada's West Coast.
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The XRP Ledger is a decentralized cryptographic ledger powered by a network of peer-to-peer servers.
Ripple
Ripple is a US-based technology company which develops the Ripple payment protocol and exchange network using XRP, the digital asset native to the XRP Ledger.
Chris Larsen stands as the Executive Chairman of Ripple’s board of directors, bringing a wealth of experience from his extensive career in financial technology.
Brad Garlinghouse stands at the forefront of financial technology as the CEO of Ripple.
ZachXBT is an independent on-chain sleuth who is popular on revealing bad actors in the crypto space.