Ripple’s co-founder Chris Larsen moves $60.5M in XRP amid the SEC filing

The Ripple, XRP, and SEC series appear to have new episodes to serve up. According to on-chain data, Chris Larsen, Ripple’s co-founder has transferred precisely 20 million XRP to an unknown wallet.

The transfer comes amidst a new appeal filed by the US SEC against Ripple Labs. The move also coincides with the Trump rally and his inauguration in a few days. Trump’s second term as president is expected to usher in a bullish rally in the crypto market. 

The tokens Larsen moved are valued at $60.54 million as XRP traded at $3.027 when Larsen made the transfer. At present, the XRP trades at $3.30, up 18.9% in the last 24 hours.

🚨 🚨 🚨 20,000,000 #XRP (60,549,568 USD) transferred from Chris Larsen to unknown wallethttps://t.co/TVvZGPrcwm

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) January 16, 2025

Follow up on the transferred tokens

Shortly after receiving the tokens, the recipient address transferred 10 million XRP to another unknown wallet. As of publication time, the recipient has held onto the remaining 10 million tokens. 

This recipient address has received millions of XRP from exchanges such as Coinbase and Bitstamp and forwarded most of them to the same unknown address.

The unknown address transferred 4 million tokens to Coinbase for potential liquidation nearly twenty minutes after the 10 million XRP inflow. As of press time, the wallet contained six million XRP. 

This suggests that 16 million XRP from the 20 million tokens recently moved by Larsen remains intact, with 4 million liquidated through Coinbase. This is in addition to the 10 million XRP tokens held by the initial recipient address.

Despite the fact that such an activity would have resulted in a price decline, the price has surged instead. According to on-chain data,  XRP price saw a significant surge of over 15% in the last 24 hours, with the coin exchanging hands at $3.11. It comes up to a 37% rise through the week and 17% in the last month. 

The 24-hour trading volume has gained 66% along with a 15% growth in the market cap.

Larsen’s current asset liquidations

In September 2024, the address transferred 50 million XRP to an unknown wallet. This was its first high-value transaction since its creation in 2013. Afterward, Larsen quickly liquidated a portion of the assets. He then repeated the process for the remaining tokens over the course of two weeks. 

The Larsen address was inactive for several months following the 50 million XRP transfer. However, on January 6 this year, he transferred 10 million XRP directly to Coinbase. The address has now transferred 80 million XRP within five months after being inactive for 11 years.

It is highly probable that the remaining assets will also be transferred to Coinbase based on the address’s pattern in recent months. 

At the time of publication, the Larsen wallet holds 420 million XRP, a drop from the 500 million tokens it received in 2013. However, the Ripple chairman maintains a significantly greater amount of assets in multiple wallets. Larsen owns 2.72 billion XRP held in six wallets as verified by XRPScan.

Meanwhile, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has submitted a new appeal against the verdict that ruled that XRP is not a security. The latest ruling appears to have shifted the balance of the SEC – XRP lawsuit. However, Ripple’s team claims it expected a favorable ruling.  

Brad Garlinghouse called it insanity. He said, “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  Gensler’s SEC really took this to heart.”

The current proceedings have temporarily put an end to speculation regarding the XRP ETF. Market analysts speculate it could even result in a potential settlement in the Ripple vs. SEC lawsuit. 

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