Ripple chairman Chris Larsen was hacked for 213 million XRP worth approximately $112.5 million
ZachXBT, an internet sleuth, reported the suspected hack.Ripple co-founder and executive chairman Chris Larsen revealed on January 31 that his personal accounts had been compromised. The story was first revealed by crypto analyst ZachXBT, who initially believed that the corporation itself had been hacked.”There was unauthorised access to a couple of my personal XRP accounts (not @Ripple) yesterday, but we were able to swiftly identify the issue and notify exchanges to freeze the impacted addresses. “Law enforcement is already involved.”
The Ripple chairman would not confirm the sums, but, according to ZachXBT, the breach netted 213 million XRP. $0.50 was worth around $112.5 million at the time of the occurrence. The monies were purportedly syphoned, and the attacker attempted to launder the XRP across at least six separate exchangers. However, as Larsen’s X post suggests, law enforcement is investigating and has frozen accounts linked to the breach. It’s unclear whether the funds are still in exchange custody.
Ripple did not immediately reply to a request for comment. News of the theft circulated quickly; the price of XRP fell by roughly $0.01, but it quickly recovered and is near flat over an hour after the hack was first reported. While it looks that Ripple accounts were not compromised, implying that XRP-holder monies are safe, this could be one of the largest cryptocurrency-related attacks of 2024 so far.
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