Ripple Co-founder Addresses Security Breach: $112 Million Worth of XRP Stolen

Key Points

• Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen clarifies reports of unauthorized access to personal XRP accounts.
• Over $112 million worth of XRP stolen in the security breach.
• Cryptocurrency community expresses concerns over increasing crypto losses due to hacking incidents.

Ripple, the renowned payment protocol, faced a significant security breach as co-founder Chris Larsen revealed that unauthorized access occurred in some of his personal XRP accounts. The breach resulted in the theft of over $112 million worth of XRP, prompting swift action from Ripple and law enforcement.

Chris Larsen took to social media to address the situation, stating, "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."

Prior to Larsen's clarification, a user named ZachXBT shared data detailing the hack, revealing that the stolen funds had been laundered through various platforms, including MEXC, Gate, Binance, Kraken, OKX, HTX, HitBTC, and more.

Following the news of the security breach, the value of XRP experienced a sharp decline of more than 5%. While the token's price managed to recover slightly, it remained down by 4% as of late Wednesday morning.

This incident adds to the growing concerns within the cryptocurrency community regarding the security of digital assets. Crypto hacks have become a recurring problem, with statistics from Immunefi indicating that nearly $127 million fell into the hands of hackers and fraudsters across 19 specific incidents in January 2024 alone.

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The crypto community has been on high alert, especially after the recent hacking of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) X account just three weeks ago. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse expressed his views, stating, "I do think the chair of the SEC, Gary Gensler, is a political liability in the United States."

Ripple and the SEC have a history of disputes, with a judge partially ruling in favor of Ripple's argument that XRP is not a security during a lawsuit in July 2023. However, the recent security breach has reignited concerns about the overall safety and regulation of the cryptocurrency market.

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