Ripple Co-Founder Falls Victim To Hack, Loses $112 Million

Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen has reported that he was targeted by hackers who gained access to personal XRP accounts, leading to Larsen losing around $112 million. 

Larsen made the revelation after blockchain investigator ZachXBT made a post flagging suspicious transfers of XRP, stating it appeared Ripple was hacked. 

Ripple Co-Founder’s Account Compromised

Ripple’s co-founder and executive chairman Larsen took to X to disclose the hack, stating that hackers accessed his personal Ripple accounts. He stressed that this breach did not impact Ripple in any way. He added that they could notify exchanges and get the addresses involved in the breach frozen. 

“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 added that all Ripple wallets were secure and were not compromised in the first place. He also added that they were working with law enforcement, adding that a significant portion of the stolen funds were frozen and are pursuing the remainder. 

“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 and have been advised that a significant portion of funds have been frozen, and we are pursuing the remainder aggressively.”

Meanwhile, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse did not hold back when talking about the incident, reiterating that no Ripple wallets were compromised. 

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

ZachXBT Flagged Activity 

The post by Larsen comes after blockchain sleuth ZachXBT took to X saying it appeared Ripple was hacked for $112 million. The researcher added that the stolen XRP had already been laundered through several crypto exchanges, including Binance, OKX, HTX, Kraken, Gate, and others. ZachXBT highlighted eight major transactions tied to the hack, further adding in a follow-up post, 

“The sheer number of [transactions] to exchanges in a short time span should tell you enough. Ripple team is not going to use a small instant exchange like FixedFloat in size.”

A Binance spokesperson stated the exchange was aware of the incident and was actively assisting in the investigation. Kraken spokesperson Megan Thorpe also confirmed Kraken was aware of the hack, stating, 

“We are aware of the incident. We have an incident response capability and undertake a proactive review of open source to identify incidents such as this, engage with victims, and prevent Kraken from being used in this way.”

No Clarity Who Controls Hacked Wallets 

Despite the clarifications by Ripple and Larsen, there is no clarity about who controls the hacked wallet. Data from XRPScan shows the hacked wallet, Ripple (50), was activated by another wallet called FundingWallet1 on the 5th of November, 2018. This wallet was activated by Larsen’s account in 2013, only a month after his account, chrislarsen, was created. Some have even called for Ripple’s co-founders to disclose their crypto wallets and XRP holdings to boost transparency. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.