A well-known crypto investigator operating under the alias ZachXBT sheds light on the situation by revealing that around 213 million XRP tokens (equivalent to $112 million) were illicitly withdrawn from a Ripple wallet. To further complicate matters, some of these funds have already been laundered through prominent cryptocurrency exchanges such as MEXC, Gate, Binance, Kraken, OKX, HTX, and HitBTC.
Subsequently, Chris Larsen, the co-founder and the head of Ripple Labs, comes forward to confirm the hack. However, he clarifies that the breach exclusively affected his “personal XRP accounts” and not the overall operations of the company.
“We promptly identified the issue and promptly alerted exchanges to freeze the impacted addresses. Law enforcement agencies are already involved in the investigation,” Larsen assures.
Despite this setback, Ripple (XRP) continues to maintain its position as the sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap.
It is worth noting that in 2020, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs, accusing the firm of fraudulent activity by selling XRP tokens without registering them as securities. Nevertheless, Larsen and his company celebrated a significant victory in July 2023, when a judge ruled that XRP does not fall under the definition of a security.
In September, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse expressed concerns about the United States being one of the riskiest jurisdictions for developing a cryptocurrency business.