As of today, the value of the digital currency industry roofed up to $600 billion, giving birth to many millionaires and billionaires. The billionaire club welcomes two new members owning the most XRP in the industry and are now considered as the wealthiest Americans alive.
Ripple, a company based in San Francisco, succeeded in producing these wealthy gentlemen. To sum up the history of its success, the company utilizes the blockchain technology only in international financial transactions. In every transaction, it issues a token they call XRP that has a market capitalization of approximately $8.9 billion; and every XRP can be traded at $2.39.
Who is Chris Larsen?
Chris Larsen is the co-founder and the former CEO of Ripple. He stepped down from the position last November of 2016. As of today, he serves as the Ripple executive chairman. Larsen has 5.19 billion XRP in his personal holdings and a 17% stake in the Ripple. That sums it as $37.3 billion, with respect to the current exchange rate.
With his net worth, Larsen is now considered as the 15th wealthiest American in the 2017 Forbes 400 List, binding him with the former CEO of Microsoft and the owner of NBA’S Los Angeles Clippers, Steve Ballmer. He’s a step ahead from Abigail Johnson, the founder, and CEO of Fidelity, and also a member of the crypto world, along with Ray Dalio, the hedge funder and popular investor Carl Icahn. They both landed the news headline for referring Bitcoin as a bubble.
Who is Brad Garlinghouse?
The current CEO of the Ripple is Brad Garlinghouse. He owns approximately 6.3% stage in Ripple. And a source from Ripple revealed that he has personal XRP tokens as well. His net worth roofed up to $9.5 billion. Garlinghouse landed 54th on the list.
Another Billionaire in Ripple
Since the XRP fast-tracked from $0.006 on January 1, 2017, to $2.30 on December 31, the company reaped an astounding return of approximately 38,000%.
The third person in the list who owns the most XRP in Ripple is one of the cofounders – Jed McCaleb. He left Ripple in 2013 and has negotiated with his XRP ownings. He stated that 2 billion of his XRP was donated to a donor-advised fund. The other 5.3 billion XRP as of February 2016 are secured in a custody account at Ripple and doled out to him every 30 days.
McCaleb, after complying with the agreement, is now allowed to sell less than 1% of the average daily volume. If he could have access to the XRP, without a doubt, he would become a billionaire as well.
This well-known programmer is also a founder of the Mt. Gox in 2010 but stated that he doesn’t have any Bitcoins left on him anymore after he sold it all to Ripple. After he left the company, he founded Stellar. Even with his one billion Lumens with a 48 cents value won’t allow him to join the billionaire’s club.
Who is David Schwartz?
Schwartz made a buzz when he was hired as the new chief technology officer of Ripple. In his 48 years, he made himself the co-creator of the most valuable cryptocurrency, XRP.
Now, Schwartz’s primary mission is to disassemble and modify the largest getaways in the world – Ripple – the company that helps in connecting banks from all over the world. It transacts trillions of dollars to transfer from one account to another.
Schwartz desires to disrupt the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, a cooperative organization in Belgian that started functioning in 1973. It holds over 10,000 financial institutions, and it is the middleman in almost any banking.
He refused to have XRP cryptocurrency and instead asked for a salary and a 2% stake in Ripple. As of today, Schwartz is not considered as a co-founder of Ripple, despite his legendary contribution. He is regarded as an employee and a chief architect. Considering the Ripple’s value at approximately $4.7 billion and the market cap for XRP at $13, his net worth is believed to be around $90 million.
The customers of Ripple
Ripple stated that as of today, they are catering to over a hundred customers, including Santander and American Express. Both of them are collaborating on the US to UK transactions with the help of Ripple. A report has also confirmed that the Bank of technology is one of its early customers and did a pilot with them.
Unlike other cryptocurrencies, the XRP that the Ripple issues are less decentralized. For example, the Ripple per se has 61.3 billion XRP, which includes the 55 billion it secures in an escrow account. That means only 38.7 billion XRP tokens have been released.
On the other hand, Bitcoin is less concentrated, even though a lot of early holders and investors are holding a huge amount of coins. The enigmatic creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, is believed to be owning the largest amount, estimating up to 980,000 Bitcoins (equivalent to $13.4 billion using the Monday’s Bitcoin price). The holdings only represent 5.8% of the total Bitcoin value.
Conclusion
The cofounders of Ripple, owning the most XRP are now considered wealthier than the Google founders. Should the Ripple continue to sky-rocket into success, these gentlemen will become richer in the future.
Owning the most XRP, Larsen, and Garlinghouse are now both included in the list of the wealthiest Americans by Forbes. And Ripple as the world’s largest and renowned cryptocurrencies, owning a lot of XRP is a wise investment. Due to the enormous wings of Ripple values, the listed gentlemen may or may not be included in the next list. This, we will find out, in the near future.
One thing is for sure: Ripple can succeed once it proves that the XRP blockchain is decentralized, it is worthy of being trusted, and steps up the technology forward as it secures all transaction. The success of the company and its products would depend on how they continue to strengthen their weak aspects, prove its stability, and appeal to the crypto world.
