Ripple’s Chris Larsen has lost $150 million worth of XRP, after hackers breached his wallet. According to records, the theft occurred in January 2024, with the hackers stealing 283 million XRP via a LastPass hack. LastPass was a password manager that was hacked in 2022.
The news came after the United States law enforcement filed a forfeiture complaint, with on-chain investigator ZachXBT sharing it on Telegram. ZachXBT, in his statement, noted that after the theft occurred, the tokens had been moved around across various wallets before Larsen noticed.
When the hack happened, Larsen notified the public of the development. “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,” he said at the time.
XRP slumps amid Ripple’s Chris Larsen hack news
After the news came out in public, XRP suffered a slight drop, seeing a decline of 7% to trade at $2.41, according to data from CoinGecko. Traders also made matters worse, dumping the tokens as concerns over security and Ripple’s actions against it mounts.
Despite the loss, Larsen still holds a heavy amount of XRP. He presently holds 2.7 billion XRP, which is presently valued at around $7 billion. Meanwhile, ZachXBT noted that most of the wallets that these XRPs have been inactive for years, with some last active six to seven years ago.
However, XRP could yet witness a bullish momentum, considering its addition to the United States strategic crypto reserve announced by Donald Trump. Other tokens include Cardano’s ADA, SOL, Bitcoin, and Ethereum.
In January 2025, a large-scale transaction took place, with XRP being moved to centralized exchanges like Coinbase, Bybit, and Bitstamp. The move triggered speculations surrounding the happenings with the XRP stolen from Larsen.
ZachXBT alleged that Larsen may have lost control of some of his wallets or he may have transferred control. In 2020, Larsen moved 500 million XRP, worth $115 million at the time to an unknown destination. While he mentioned that it was sent to NYDIG for safekeeping, users in the market believed that it was a quiet sale of the tokens.
After the announcement, XRP jumped briefly, hitting $2.90 before settling down at $2.60. While Larsen is not expected to attend the White House crypto summit, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouuse is expected to be in attendance.