YEREVAN (CoinChapter.com) — Several personal XRP accounts of Chris Larsen, the co-founder and executive chairman of Ripple, were hacked. The attack reportedly resulted in the theft of approximately 213 million XRP tokens, valued at around $112.5 million.
Crypto analyst ZachXBT was the first to report the attack on X (formerly Twitter).
According to his post on the social media platform, the breach and subsequent laundering operation involved several exchanges, including MEXC, Gate, and Binance, among others.
Through this, the hackers allegedly tried to obscure the stolen funds.
Chris Larsen confirms hack
Although initial reports suggested that the attack had been on Ripple, the company’s executive chairman took to X to clarify the incident.
Confirming the hack through a post on his wall, Larsen disclosed that there was unauthorized access to a few of his personal XRP accounts. According to the Ripple executive, the firm’s wallets did not suffer as a result of the attack.
“This is an isolated incident, and Ripple wallets are secure / were never compromised. We’ve confirmed nearly all the affected funds were converted out of XRP,”
Larsen wrote.
Luckily, they were able to quickly identify the issue, allowing them to notify exchanges to freeze the affected addresses.
In response to the breach, Larsen has reportedly taken steps to mitigate the consequences. These include working with law enforcement and cybersecurity experts to trace the stolen funds and strengthen security infrastructure to prevent future incidents.
Some of the stolen funds have also been frozen as a result of the swift action.
Moreover, ZachXBT has publicly disclosed the theft addresses to help monitor and possibly intercept the illicit flow of the stolen XRP.
XRP price slips after hack
As news of the recent hack on the Ripple executive spread, it temporarily impacted the XRP price.
According to the daily trading charts, the controversial token’s price experienced a slight dip following the news of the attack. It slipped around 5%, going from $0.5227 to a daily low of $0.4972.
However, it quickly rebounded, recovering its losses after Chris Larsen offered clarifications on the incident. At the time of writing, XRP exchanges hands at $0.5112, around 85% below its all-time high of $3.4 from Jan. 7, 2018.
Did You know? On Dec 22, 2020, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC ) initiated a civil action against Ripple, Larsen, and Brad Garlinghouse, the firm’s CEO. The lawsuit claimed that Ripple should have registered the distribution of the digital asset XRP, dating back to 2013, as a security. The agency later withdrew allegations against both executives.
