According to Woofun AI, Ripple's CTO Emeritus and XRP Ledger co-creator David Schwartz publicly acknowledged on social media platform X on November 9 that his cryptocurrency holdings have undergone a dramatic contraction, with his XRP position plummeting from a peak of approximately 26 million tokens to just 3 million — a decline of over 88%. This large-scale divestment has not only reshaped his personal balance sheet but has also ignited fierce debate within the XRP community about the source of market selling pressure.
From the perspective of asset structure evolution, Schwartz's selling strategy exhibits a pattern of comprehensive exit. Beyond XRP, his Bitcoin (BTC) holdings shrank from roughly 1,500 coins to just 1, while his Ethereum (ETH) position dropped from approximately 40,000 tokens to 6, nearly emptying his exposure to major public blockchain tokens. Data compiled by Woofun AI shows that in 2025 alone, he sold approximately 2.5 million XRP, tokens primarily acquired in 2020 and 2023. To meet the resulting tax obligations, he paid roughly $1.7 million in capital gains taxes.
Schwartz attributed this series of moves to his extremely low risk tolerance, revealing that he and his wife established a strict discipline: whenever XRP's price hits an all-time high, they take partial profits, and before each sale, they work with a lawyer to draft a written selling plan at least 30 days in advance. Although he has long stopped buying XRP, he still retains a substantial amount of Ripple company stock, which makes his financial risk structure more complex.
It is worth noting that this disclosure comes at a time when dissatisfaction within the XRP community over the token's poor performance is intensifying. Earlier this month, some holders directly questioned whether Schwartz was a driver of the price decline. Facing public pressure, Schwartz maintained that his personal trading activity has had minimal impact on overall market prices. As the regulatory environment and corporate governance structure continue to evolve, the asset allocation moves of core team members have become an important bellwether for observing market sentiment and potential liquidity pressure.
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