Chris Larsen’s Crypto Caper: $112.5M Gone in a Digital Puff! 💸👀

Well, well, well! Grab your popcorn, folks! 🎥 On-chain sleuth ZachXBT (his street name is “The Blockchain Detective”) just reported that Ripple‘s been hit for about 213 million XRP, or as we say in the biz, a whopping $112.5 million! 💰💸

In a recent post on X (where every tweet is basically a Pulitzer!), ZachXBT raised an eyebrow at some not-so-suspicious Ripple transfers totaling a neat little sum of $112.5 million, zipping off to exchanges like they were on a shopping spree. And guess who’s allegedly behind the steering wheel? None other than Chris Larsen, the Co-Founder and Executive Chair of Ripple! Talk about a party crasher! 🎉

It appears @Ripple was hacked for ~213M XRP ($112.5M)

Source address
rJNLz3A1qPKfWCtJLPhmMZAfBkutC2Qojm

So far the stolen funds have been laundered through MEXC, Gate, Binance, Kraken, OKX, HTX, HitBTC, etc.

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) January 31, 2024

But hold your horses! Chris Larsen galloped in to save the day, saying it was just his personal Ripple accounts that got compromised—not Ripple’s corporate treasure chest! How kind of him to clarify. “No, no, don’t worry, my wallet’s a personal matter!” He reassured us all that the breach was quickly identified (like a bad haircut) and that they gave the exchanges a friendly ring to freeze those affected addresses. 📞❄️

Larsen later stated that this whole fiasco was an “isolated incident,” akin to finding a steak in a vegetarian’s fridge. 🍖 He declared that Ripple’s wallets were never violated. “The steaks are safe, folks!” He confirmed that almost all of the pilfered funds had been magically transformed out of XRP and boasted that a large portion had already been frozen, faster than you can say “Abracadabra!” And let’s not forget, law enforcement is now involved—because nothing says “trust me” like a party with the cops! 🚔🎉

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.

We’re working with law enforcement and have been advised that a significant portion of funds have been frozen, and are…

— Chris Larsen (@chrislarsensf) January 31, 2024

Now, to spice things up, these eyebrow-raising transfers are happening while XRP is doing the cha-cha! 💃💵 XRP has been hot, closing above $3 for 15 days—like a diva in the spotlight—from Jan. 15 to Jan. 30, according to our friends at CoinGecko. At the moment, it’s dancing at $3.09, just a hop and skip of 9% away from its dazzling all-time high of $3.40 (which was set back in the ancient days of January 7, 2018). Let’s see if it can keep the rhythm! 🎶💃

Read More

2025-01-30 16:53