Ripple Hack Has Gamblers Uneasy: Founder Loses $112.5M

Ripple is a popular means for sending and receiving funds to gambling websites.  On Wednesday January 31, the cryptocurrency found itself making headlines following a shocking hack.

Ripple Co-Founder Chris Larsen recently announced on X that his personal wallets had been hacked and funds had been stolen.  He was quick to note that Ripple accounts were not compromised in any way.  Exchanges froze the affected addresses.

"Yesterday, there was unauthorized access to a few of my personal XRP accounts (not @Ripple) – we were quickly able to catch the problem and notify exchanges to freeze the affected addresses. Law enforcement is already involved."

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also confirmed that Ripple itself was not affected, calling the speculation “irresponsible.”

Nevertheless, the amount taken from Larsen was staggering. According to PeckShield, the top hack involved co-founder of #Ripple Chris Larsen, losing 213M XRP ($112.5M).

Gavin Lucas, who reports almost daily on crimes and ponzi schemes related to crypto on CoinGeek, writes:

Thankfully, due to the nature of public blockchains, all of the time-stamped transactions related to these crimes can be tracked and traced relatively easily. However, digital asset recovery is not yet widely acknowledged, even though it’s possible on all blockchains.

Most of the popular sportsbook and online casino brands operating in so-called "grey markets" do tend to utilize Ripple, Gambling911.com has found.

Should gamblers be worried?

Maybe, at least in the short term.

Lucas points out that there is hope looking ahead.

"Whatever happens to Chris Larsen’s stolen XRP tokens, future victims will have a way to legally enforce their property rights, even if that property is digital. The sooner that is understood and enforced, the better."

- Nagesh Rath, Gambling911.com