Ripple Co-Founder Cashes Out $140 Million—Market Goes Bonkers! 😱🚀

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Well, well, well, if it isn’t our good buddy XRP taking a tumble! After cresting the dizzy heights of $3.65 on the 17th of July, it promptly dropped over 11% like a catapulted pumpkin on Halloween after Ripple‘s co-founder, Chris Larsen, decided to play Santa with a transfer of 50 million XRP. 🎃

Much to the delight of blockchain detective ZachXBT, it appears our friend Chris has moved about $140 million worth of those shiny tokens to various addresses, most likely with a directly proportional degree of hesitation—or maybe just a dash of mischief. 🙃

Oh Look, A Diagram! 📊

This sudden act of charitable distribution ruffled more than a few feathers in the market, as people began to peep behind the curtain of founder-linked wallets like they were investigating a poorly-kept magician’s secret. 🕵️‍♂️

Since July 17, 2025, Chris has been on a transfer spree, sending 50M XRP ($175M) to four different addresses.

Let’s not forget that roughly $140M found its way to exchanges/services, no doubt leading to some very lively market chatter!

30M XRP went to rPS9kVPbgZF4vXq2hs6s9Xv2754qdRau98, and rnQXgGAjqbF4KoBpcBK5YBHyZEL7nGWWoi took a cool 10M. How generous of him! 🤑

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) July 24, 2025

A quick look at the on-chain data from CryptoQuant shows that Chris’s wallet was more active than a rooster at dawn between July 17 and July 24—just as XRP peaked and then dove like a rock. ⚡

No wonder the wallet’s balance took a nose-dive! 📉

Meanwhile, our buddy XRP didn’t take too kindly to this revelation, plummeting from its lofty perch of $3.65 down to a mere shade under $3.25 before making a feeble attempt to recover. Talk about a rollercoaster ride! 🎢

This whole saga bears an eerie resemblance to the shenanigans witnessed in past market cycles, particularly during the 2017-2018 bull run, when founder wallet outflows danced hand-in-hand with price tops. Quite the complicated waltz—if I do say so myself!

But fear not! Chris’s wallets still hoard a treasure trove of over 2.81 billion XRP, which could fetch around $8.4 billion if they were to hit the market. That sounds like a lot of mumbo jumbo for a tiny piece of code, doesn’t it? 🏦

Given all this fuss, it’s like having a giant cloud looming over our token friends, especially if more of these flashy sales pop up on the horizon!

The timing of these transfers—just days after XRP hit its all-time high—smells an awful lot like a clever little profit-taking scheme, don’t you think? 🤑

A Peek at History: The 2012 Pact 📜

In the grand scheme of things, a 2012 agreement between Ripple’s founders, that trio of mischief-makers—Chris Larsen, Jed McCaleb, and Arthur Britto—has waddled back into the limelight. This monumental document has confirmed that Britto secured a whopping 2% of all XRP (back when they were still calling those pretty coins Ripple Credits). And lo and behold, he received lifetime rights to tinker with the Ripple protocol, independent of company approval. What a deal! 🥳

HISTORICAL DOCUMENT LEAKED!

Signed on Sept 17, 2012, this monumental agreement confirms that Britto was gifted 2% of the entire XRP pie (when it was still called “Ripple Credits”). Plus, he got carte blanche to build on the Ripple protocol as he pleased! 🎉

— Echo 𝕏 (@echodatruth) June 3, 2025

This agreement sheds light on how centralized the XRP distribution was right from the get-go. It raises eyebrows about the grip these early insiders still hold on the supply, which has folks scratching their heads in concern.

Insider Antics Echo 2018 Market Shenanigans 🤔

The timing and scale of Larsen’s recent fire sale aren’t exactly under the radar. On-chain charts indicate that the last big outflows from Chris’s purse happened just around the XRP’s prime time in 2018.
Seems like déjà vu, don’t you think?

This backdrop certainly elevates the worries regarding insider shenanigans that might keep prices feeling the squeeze. Yet, despite these torpedo-like outflows, the good ol’ XRP market has demonstrated some mighty resilience. Even with the recent dip, XRP is still strutting around as one of the top-performing large-cap tokens this quarter. Talk about perseverance! 💪

While immediate selling pressure stirred the pot recently, technical indicators are whispering of solid support floating around the $3 mark. Traders are now keeping an eagle eye out for a bounce back past that magical $3.40–$3.50 range. 🦅

However, folks may still approach with a hint of caution, what with the founder’s not-so-stealthy antics looming over everyone. 🤷‍♂️

If future sales slide through OTC or institutional desks, we might not need to worry as much about ripples in the pond. With a treasure trove still held tight by the founders, future price movements may hinge on transparency and some responsible handling of these sparkling assets. 💼

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2025-07-25 00:47