Ripple billionaire club: What happened to early XRP owners

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The lost history

Unfortunately, we will never see the full picture of ownership. On December 31, 2012, a technical error led to the loss of the first 32,569 blocks of the XRP Ledger. Those blocks contained information about the earliest token sales and wallet transfers.

This “black hole” erased crucial data from XRP’s formative months. Although the community has managed to reconstruct part of the history since 2013, the full transaction records of key insiders — Larsen, McCaleb, Britto, Schwartz, and later Brad Garlinghouse — remain a mystery.

Chris Larsen

Larsen joined Ripple in 2012 and received 9 billion XRP. He led the company for years and is now considered one of the richest people in the crypto world.According to Forbes, his fortune is estimated at $8–11 billion. As for actual sales, the main estimate of Larsen’s fiat gains from selling XRP comes from Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement actions.

Larsen actively sold tokens: between 2015 and 2020, he and his wife sold 1.7 billion XRP for $450 million. In 2025 alone, his tracked transfers included $175 million in July, $26 million in June, and tens of millions more in January.

Alongside sales, he made significant donations: 1.2 billion XRP to the RippleWorks charity fund, which today holds assets of about $1.4 billion, and up to $25 million to San Francisco State University.

Despite billions in sales and donations, Larsen still holds a substantial amount of XRP. One of his wallets alone contains more than 1.1 million XRP, and his net worth keeps him among the top crypto magnates.

Jed McCaleb

McCaleb — the creator of Ripple — could not get along with the team. In 2013, he left, and a year later launched Stellar. But he still had so much XRP that his exit could have become a problem.

To avoid that, he agreed with Ripple to sell tokens on a programmatic schedule. From 2014 to 2022, he methodically sold 5.7 billion XRP for $3.1 billion. No panic, no sudden moves — just weekly sales in small amounts, regardless of price.

On July 17, 2022, Jed sold his last XRP and closed that chapter for good. His fortune today is around $3 billion. He has long-lived in the world of Stellar, and in Ripple’s history, he remains the man who could have caused chaos but instead left quietly and without destruction.

David Schwartz

Schwartz is the chief architect of the XRP Ledger and Ripple’s current CTO. Unlike his colleagues, he never had billion-level holdings.In April 2024, he publicly stated that he had at most 26 million XRP, though rumors claimed he held over a billion. Together with his wife, he sold some of his tokens in the early days — when XRP cost $0.10 and Bitcoin $750.

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His exact net worth is unknown, but it’s clear he never entered the “billionaire club.”

Arthur Britto

Britto is the most mysterious of the founders. Estimates suggest that in 2012 he received 1–2 billion XRP. Ripple did not dispute the SEC’s allegation that the number could have been closer to two.

How much he sold or still holds is unknown. He rarely appears in public, and his X (Twitter) account, created in 2011, has only one post. Earlier this year, he published a single emoji.

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Britto was subject to a “founders’ lock-up plan,” but details of his personal sales or current holdings remain undisclosed. His story is still Ripple’s greatest mystery.

Brad Garlinghouse

Garlinghouse joined Ripple in 2015 and became CEO in 2017. Though not a founder, his XRP allocations and company shares made him one of the wealthiest figures in the industry.

According to the SEC, between 2017 and 2019 he sold at least 321 million XRP worth $150 million. In 2025, during an XRP price rally, his personal fortune exceeded $10 billion, and that summer he reportedly sold another $200 million in tokens.

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Most of his sales were programmatic, meaning they were carried out on a pre-set schedule. In addition to XRP, he owns an equity stake in Ripple, estimated by some sources at about 6.9%.

The stories of XRP’s first holders are a mix of wealth, mystery, and power. Some, like Larsen, still move the market. Some, like McCaleb, left and never looked back. Others, like Britto, remain hidden in the shadows.

But together, they remind us of one truth: in crypto, it’s not only the technology that matters — it’s also who holds the first coins. Because those hands can shape the fate of an entire ecosystem.

Ripple has become a global company with investments, partnerships, and business ventures. But the fate of XRP still depends on those who founded it.

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