Ripple founder was robbed of $ 112 million in cryptocurrency

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Chris Larsen, co-founder of the Ripple blockchain project, said that unknown people stole more than $ 112 million worth of cryptocurrency from him.

The theft occurred earlier this week and was discovered by a well-known blockchain expert, ZachXBT. The researcher noticed that 213 million Ripple XRP is being moved and tried to "launder" through Binance, Kraken and other cryptocurrency platforms.

Although Ripple did not comment on the situation, Chris Larsen, co-founder and CEO of the project, denied on Twitter that the company itself was hacked. Instead, he claimed to have been hacked personally.

"Yesterday, unauthorized access was obtained to several of my personal XRP accounts (not @Ripple). We were able to quickly detect the problem and notify the exchanges about the need to freeze the affected addresses. Law enforcement agencies have already joined the case," Larsen writes. — This is a separate incident. Ripple wallets are securely protected and have not been hacked. We are confident that almost all affected funds were converted from XRP. We are working with law enforcement agencies and received information that a significant part of the funds has already been frozen, and the remaining part is actively monitored."

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse confirmed Larsen's words and stressed that "no wallet managed by Ripple has been hacked."

According to ZachXBT, the stolen funds were allegedly laundered through eight different transactions, each involving millions of XRP.

 

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Cryptocurrency exchange Binance froze $4.2 million in XRP tokens associated with the hacking of the personal wallet of Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen.

After finding out early on about the exploit that occurred at @Ripple, we’re happy to say that the #Binance team has managed to freeze $4.2 Million worth of $XRP stolen by the exploiter.

We appreciate both the communities efforts in flagging it to exchanges — as always @zachxbt…
— Richard Teng (@_RichardTeng) February 1, 2024

https://twitter.com/_RichardTeng/sta...rc=twsrc%5Etfw

On January 31, on-chain researcher ZachXBT drew attention to suspicious transactions and suggested that hackers stole ~213 million XRP worth $112.5 million from Ripple.

Larsen said that this is about his personal funds. According to him, a day earlier, unknown people gained unauthorized access to several personal accounts. He noted that it was possible to quickly identify the problem, notify trading platforms of the need to block assets and involve law enforcement officers in the investigation.

The head of Binance, Richard Teng, thanked the Ripple team for coordinating the tracking of stolen ZachXBT tokens. He assured that the exchange's specialists will continue to monitor the assets remaining on the attackers ' wallets.

Back on January 31, commenting on the incident, Larsen said that "a significant part" of the funds was frozen.

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

https://twitter.com/chrislarsensf/st...rc=twsrc%5Etfw

According to ZachXBT, hackers transferred XRP to Binance, Kraken, OKX, HTX, MEXC, Gate, and other platforms.

Thomas Silkjaer, Director of Analytics and Compliance at the XRP Ledger Foundation, said that after the hack was discovered, the team spent more than 18 hours exchanging information with various exchanges about the movement of coins.

We received a tip yesterday from @WhiteBit of suspicious deposits, which led to unravelling a huge network of accounts involved in this case.

We alerted Chris as soon as we realised what was going on and have worked tirelessly for the past 18+ hours, collaborating with our good… https://t.co/OU3FNSSHHu
— Thomas Silkjær (@Silkjaer) January 31, 2024
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"At the moment, I can't share any more details. However, as usual, I will repeat that some exchanges are much more responsive than others. Thank you for your cooperation," he wrote.