Ripple’s XRP falls amid reports it was likely hacked – CoinDesk

(Reuters) – Cryptocurrency company Ripple’s XRP token was down more than 5% on Wednesday amid speculation the network was likely hacked and drained of tokens worth $112.5 million, according to a CoinDesk report.

Blockchain analyst ZachXBT claimed on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that 213 million XRP tokens were stolen from one wallet, and laundered through multiple exchanges such as Binance, Kraken and OKX, among others.

Chris Larsen, the co-founder of Ripple, clarified the unauthorized access was from his personal accounts and that law enforcement was already notified.

“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,” Larsen wrote on X.

Ripple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Ripple’s XRP token has fallen 19% in value so far this year, and is currently down 1.9% at $0.50.

(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)