Since July 17, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen has transferred 50 million XRP, worth about $175 million, to exchanges, according to blockchain investigator ZachXBT. Social media users are criticizing the 65-year-old Silicon Valley executive, accusing him of insider trading with Ripple.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), ZachXBT revealed that the XRP was sent to four different wallet addresses, with around $140 million of it ending up on exchanges or services. This news has caused XRP’s price to drop over 9% in the last 24 hours, now trading at $3.21 during Thursday’s US session. Ripple’s token had fallen 19% from its all-time high of $3.65.
ZachXBT’s investigation shows that three wallets received 30 million XRP combined, while a fourth wallet got 10 million XRP. Two newly activated wallets were also credited with 5 million XRP each, totaling 50 million XRP moved in less than a week.
When asked how much XRP Larsen still holds, ZachXBT said the wallets still control over 2.81 billion XRP. At the current price of $3.11 per token, this is worth $8.7 billion, which is about 4.6% of XRP’s $183 billion market cap.
These transfers happened just after XRP hit a local high of $3.60 last Friday before dropping below $3.10. The price drop, partly blamed on the selloff, has led to accusations that Larsen is profiting by selling at XRP’s peak and “dumping” on retail investors.
Looking at the big picture though, one would expect whales to at some point cash out some of their holdings when fresh all-time highs are being made.
