Chris Larsen, co-founder of San Francisco-based blockchain firm Ripple, has confirmed unauthorized access to several of his personal XRP accounts.
He noted that the issue was swiftly identified, leading to immediate action that included notifying exchanges to freeze the affected addresses. Law enforcement agencies have been engaged to investigate the breach.
According to an independent cryptocurrency investigator, ZachXBT (@zachxbt), the hack resulted in the theft of approximately 213 million XRP, valued at around $112.5 million.
Mushumir ButtThe stolen funds were reportedly laundered through various exchanges, including MEXC, Gate, Binance, Kraken, OKX, HTX and HitBTC.
The revelation of the hack had an immediate impact on XRP's market value. The cryptocurrency's price plunged by more than 5% in the aftermath of the news.
However, the market showed some resilience, with XRP clawing back some of its losses shortly thereafter. At the time of reporting, XRP was trading at $0.5047 after a 3.8% decrease.
Tomiwabold Olajide
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
Vladislav Sopov