Ripple Chairman Chris Larsen Moves 20M XRP Now Worth $60.5M

Ripple chairman Chris Larsen transfers 20 million XRP to an unknown wallet address amid the latest XRP price milestone. 

Whale tracking resource Whale Alert first indexed the transaction, which occurred earlier today at 1:04 UTC. On-chain data confirms that the Larsen address moved exactly 20 million XRP to the unknown wallet ‘rPS…u98’ in a single outflow.

Details of the XRP Movement

Due to XRP’s latest price milestone, the tokens were worth $60.54 million, indicating that XRP traded at $3.027 when Larsen made the transfer. Recall that XRP recently reclaimed $3 and has now held above it despite an earlier pullback.

Notably, the latest transaction elicited multiple reactions within the XRP community. Several individuals now speculate the possible reason behind the high-value transfer. Some hopefully suggested it might relate to a possible settlement in the Ripple vs. SEC case. However, the SEC recently filed its appeal brief, looking to extend the case.

Shortly after receiving the assets, the recipient address rPS…u98 transferred 10 million XRP to another unknown wallet ‘rnQ…woi’ at 2:46 UTC. 

So far, rPS…u98 has held onto the remaining 10 million tokens. However, it bears mentioning that this address has been receiving millions of XRP from exchanges Coinbase and Bitstamp and sending most of them to rnQ..woi. 

Nearly twenty minutes after the 10 million XRP inflow, rnQ…woi transferred 4 million tokens, which have since moved to Coinbase for possible liquidation. The wallet still holds 6 million XRP at press time. 

Combined with the 10 million XRP tokens held by rPS…u98, the initial recipient address, this indicates that 16 million XRP from the 20 million tokens recently moved by Larsen remains intact, with 4 million liquidated through Coinbase.

Larsen Could Liquidate All the Assets

There is a high possibility that the leftover assets would also move to Coinbase. Notably, the behavior of the Larsen address over the past few months has triggered this conjecture. Recall that last September, the address moved 50 million XRP to an unknown wallet, marking its first high-value transaction since its inception in 2013.

Interestingly, Larsen liquidated some of the assets immediately and carried out the same action for the remaining tokens over two weeks. This triggers speculations that the Ripple chairman could engage in a similar campaign this time.

Following the 50 million XRP transfer from September 2024, the Larsen address remained quiet for months until this year, when it moved 10 million XRP directly to Coinbase on Jan. 6. Now, with the 20 million XRP outflow, the address has moved 80 million XRP within five months after being dormant for 11 years.

At press time, the Larsen wallet currently holds 420 million XRP, down from the 500 million tokens it received in 2013. Nonetheless, the Ripple chairman holds much more than this across several wallets. XRPScan confirms that Larsen now has 2.72 billion XRP across six wallets.