On Wednesday, Chris Larsen, co-founder and executive chairman of Ripple, publicly disclosed that several of his personal XRP accounts had been illicitly accessed. Larsen confirmed that his team successfully persuaded cryptocurrency exchanges to promptly freeze the affected addresses.
$112.5 Million Transferred From Chris Larsen's Accounts
The revelation initially emerged from onchain analyst Zachxbt, who quickly shared the information, stating, "It appears Ripple was hacked for ~213M XRP ($112.5M)." This development sparked intense speculation across social media platforms, particularly within the X community.
Larsen addressed the situation on X, saying: "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." He added, "Law enforcement is already involved."
XRP initially dropped 5% on the news against the U.S. dollar. As of 10:40 p.m. Eastern Time, 24-hour statistics showed XRP down 3.5%. Many speculators are questioning how the attackers managed to access 213 million XRP from Larsen's stash. The incident remains a compelling mystery until more details emerge.
This breach underscores the persistent security challenges in the cryptocurrency space, even for industry executives. While Ripple's corporate accounts were not compromised, the theft of personal assets belonging to a high-profile figure raises concerns about wallet security. The swift response by exchanges to freeze the funds demonstrates the industry's growing ability to mitigate such attacks.