Timothy St. John•Thursday, February 1, 2024•2 min read
Ripple’s price dropped by 4% on the back of news that $112.5 million of XRP coins was stolen after a major hack.
Initial reports stated that Ripple wallets were hacked and the money stolen from there. This caused the XRP value to drop to its lowest price point of the year, $0.494 (XRP/USD). Investors feared that their Ripple wallets had been compromised and all of their XRP coins were at risk.
It turns out that some of the news was fake, according to Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple. He said that no wallets were compromised as a result of the hack. A statement from Ripple cofounder Chris Larsen gave further clarification. He said that money was stolen, but it was only from his personal wallet and not from the wallets of any other investors. In fact, his statement said that no Ripple wallets were affected, but some speculate that they may be related to Ripple.
As a result, the accounts that stole from his wallet were identified and are now being tracked by law enforcement. The addresses in question were frozen to prevent further illegal behavior.
XRP’s Fallout
The initial news was broken by an on-chain investigator going by the name of ZachXBT, and Ripple investors are concerned that the Ripple founders did not report it themselves from the start. The money was laundered through multiple accounts to make it difficult to track, but law enforcement is chasing down leads to determine the original source.
Today’s Ripple price marks the lowest the coin has fallen since October of last year, when it dropped to $0.4857 briefly. There may be some issues around the cryptocurrency coin that need to be cleared up before investor confidence in the coin improves. XRP is currently down by 20% for the month and has yet to show signs of recovery today after the initial news reports surfaced.
Timothy St John is a seasoned financial analyst and writer, catering to the dynamic landscapes of the US and European markets. Boasting over a decade of extensive freelance writing experience, he has made significant contributions to reputable platforms such as Yahoo!Finance, business.com: Expert Business Advice, Tips, and Resources - Business.com, and numerous others. Timothy's expertise lies in in-depth research and comprehensive coverage of stock and cryptocurrency movements, coupled with a keen understanding of the economic factors influencing currency dynamics. Timothy majored in English at East Tennessee State University, and you can find him on LinkedIn.