Ripple Founder Jed McCaleb Pocketed $3.1B in ‘Mind Blowing’ Gains From XRP Sales

Ripple Labs co-founder Jed McCaleb realized at least $3.14 billion in gains from the sale of 5.7 billion XRP tokens over the last eight years, according to crypto tracking tool Whale Alert.

McCaleb sold the last of his 9 billion XRP on Sunday morning, ending a dumping spree that began in 2014. Data from his wallet, named “tacostand“, shows a balance of only 47.6 XRP worth $17. His last outgoing transfer of 1.1 million XRP tokens was valued at over $396,000.

McCaleb’s ‘mind-blowing’ gains

Whale Alert said it had been able to track the sales of 5.7 billion XRP tokens over eight years. In total, the former Ripple Labs chief technology officer pocketed about $3.14 billion in gains from the sales, at an average price of $0.55 per token.

Whale Alert called McCaleb’s billion-dollar gains “mind-blowing.” “The big question that remains now is: what will the XRP price do without the downward pressure generated by Jed’s sales?” it added.

With 3.3 billion XRP sales unaccounted for by Whale Alert, it suggests McCaleb could have earned much more than $3.14 billion. However, he is known to have donated some of his holdings to a charity.

Jed McCaleb founded Ripple Labs in 2012 but left two years later to found rival payment platform Stellar. Earlier, he received 9 billion XRP, which he sold in batches as part of an agreement with his fellow founders to prevent the token’s price from crashing.

Some people have accused McCaleb of suppressing the XRP price through his long-running sales.

The price of XRP rose 4.9% to $0.36 in 24 hours, at the time of writing. The token has slumped 50% year-to-date, and almost 40% from a year ago, according to CoinGecko.

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