Ripple Chairman moves 50 million XRP to new address in first notable transfer since 2013

Ripple Chairman Chris Larsen has moved 50 million XRP to a new, unidentified address. The recent transaction took place on September 16th. The amount involved was estimated to be worth approximately $29.12 million at the time of the transfer. 

Larsen transferred the funds to an address labeled rao…gzC. This is the wallet’s first significant transaction since its creation. The wallet was created in February 2013 during the early stages of XRPL.

It was first funded with a lump transfer of 500 million XRP, representing part of Larsen’s allocation. Since then, the wallet has been mostly inactive until recently, when only a single transfer of 1 XRP was recorded in December 2017.

Ripple Chairman’s wallet had been hacked at the beginning of the year

Some people initially thought the recent transaction was a hack since Larsen’s wallet had been compromised earlier this year. The compromise of Larsen’s wallet resulted in the theft of over 212 million XRP, worth around $112.4 million at the time. The hacker transferred the funds to several trading platforms, including OKX, Kraken, and Binance.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance froze $4.2 million worth of XRP from the $112 million hack on Larsen’s personal wallet on Jan. 31.

After finding out early on about the exploit that occurred at @Ripple, we’re happy to say that the #Binance team has managed to freeze $4.2 Million worth of $XRP stolen by the exploiter.

We appreciate both the communities efforts in flagging it to exchanges – as always @zachxbt…

— Richard Teng (@_RichardTeng) February 1, 2024

On-chain data suggests that Larsen initiated the latest transfer that occurred yesterday. The sending wallet was responsible for activating the recipient address, rao…gzS, before moving the 50 million XRP. This indicates that the funds are likely under Larsen’s control.

According to the first part of Chainalysis’s mid-year crypto crime update, which was released on August 15, aggregate illegal activity in cryptocurrency has declined 19.6% year-to-date (YTD), from $20.9 billion to $16.7 billion by July 2024.

Despite the favorable advances in crypto in 2024 YTD, Chainalysis warns that two types of criminal behavior are on the rise: stolen funds and ransomware.

Larsen’s transfer sparks speculation about supporting Kamala Harris’ presidential bid

There is speculation that Larsen’s transferred funds could be used to aid Kamala Harris’ presidential bid in the upcoming US elections.

Larsen has previously publicly expressed his support for Harris. In fact, he is one of the 88 business figures who have given their support for Vice President Kamala Harris to lead as the president of the United States, in a formal letter.  

Most of Ripple’s contributions have gone to pro-crypto super political action committees (PACs) like the Fairshake PAC, which is focused on getting crypto-friendly candidates elected from both major parties. Ripple Labs has been among the chief backers of Fairshake and its affiliates, giving about $48 million to influence the 2024 elections.