Ripple executive chairman and founder Chris Larsen was back in the headlines after he transferred roughly $26 million in XRP to Coinbase last week.
The move was made as the XRP price skyrocketed to a seven-month high, as near as it has ever come to the all-time high of $3.40 it attained back in January of 2018.
While it’s unclear whether Larsen sold the XRP after the transfer, the sale raises suspicion, as Coinbase, a centralized exchange, primarily exists to facilitate the sale or trade of assets.
This latest sale fits within a broader pattern. The same crypto wallet owned by Larsen since the start of 2025 moved nearly 106 million XRP, worth roughly $344 million, to central exchanges and side wallets.
These large fund movements occurred at the time of XRP’s recent rally, which was boosted by a broader crypto rally. Bitcoin last traded at a new high of $122,838 on July 14, and XRP did the same, closing the week up 32% to trade at $3.25.
XRP is just 3.8% away from achieving the all-time high, and the sentiment among investors keeps increasing at a rapid pace. The cryptocurrency also re-captured the market capitalization top three spot from stablecoin USDT.
Chris Larsen, the visionary of the blockchain sector, established the company Ripple in 2013 to globalize payment systems using decentralized technologies.
Although he stepped down as CEO in 2016, he remains active as executive chairman of the company. Statistics from XRPScan’s on-chain data reveal that Larsen-related wallets hold roughly 2.6 billion XRP worth more than $8.3 billion at the current market price.
Ripple’s bank charter ambitions gain momentum
Aside from his crypto assets, Larsen has used the funds to finance political projects. In October 2024, he donated $1 million worth of XRP to a super PAC that backs the presidential campaign of the then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Larsen also donated to other Democratic candidates. Because of the rally of XRP as well as the sustained revival of Ripple, the publication Forbes boosted the estimated net worth of Larsen to the current $9.7 billion, up from a previous estimate of $3.2 billion as of last year.
Ripple’s most recent milestones have been significant contributors to the XRP price. The firm has most recently partnered with Circle to pursue U.S. National Trust Bank charters, an unlikely regulatory move that would pull Ripple more into the U.S. mainstream of finance.
In June, Chinese Nasdaq-listed company Webus International announced that it would set up a $300 million XRP treasury.
With XRP closing in on its all-time high, and the institutional links of Ripple becoming more entrenched, the activity of Chris Larsen’s wallet remains the focus of the crypto sphere.
Whether the sale from Larsen last week represents a coordinated sale, as part of larger financial transactions, XRP’s rally has most definitely propelled the token, and the token’s co-founder, back into the spotlight.
