Schwartz Reveals Major Reduction in XRP and Bitcoin Holdings

Four publications have covered a disclosure by David Schwartz, Ripple's CTO emeritus and a co-creator of the XRP Ledger, about his reduced cryptocurrency holdings. The Crypto Basic, Crypto Economy, CoinCodex and Protos all report that Schwartz has moved away from purchasing XRP and has sold significant portions of his crypto portfolio, although each outlet emphasizes a different part of the disclosure.

The Crypto Basic provides the most specific account of his XRP sales, reporting that Schwartz sold approximately 2.5 million XRP in 2025 and paid around $1.7 million in capital-gains tax connected with those sales. According to that outlet, his disclosure followed criticism from XRP community member Ricky, known as @WHTBOYRICKY, who questioned the tax associated with tokens Schwartz had allegedly sold.

Crypto Economy presents the broader change in Schwartz's XRP exposure, reporting that his personal holdings fell from a peak of about 26 million XRP to roughly 3 million. That is an approximately 88.5% reduction from his stated maximum position. The figure spans a longer period than the 2025 sale highlighted by The Crypto Basic, and the supplied coverage does not establish whether every token missing from the peak was sold during that particular year.

CoinCodex shifts attention to Schwartz's Bitcoin allocation, reporting that his holdings declined from 1,500 BTC to one. Protos more narrowly highlights his XRP purchasing activity, saying Schwartz has not bought the token in a long time. Together, the accounts portray a broad retreat from several crypto assets rather than a move limited to one position, but only CoinCodex supplies the detailed Bitcoin comparison.

The market backdrop was mixed when the disclosure was reported. XRP was priced at $1.06, down 0.95% over 24 hours and 18.93% over seven days, with a market capitalization of $67.37 billion. By contrast, Bitcoin was up 1.42% over 24 hours, while the total crypto market capitalization stood at $2.54 trillion and was broadly higher. The Fear & Greed Index registered 29, placing sentiment in the Fear category.

The disclosures are notable because they come from a closely involved figure in the XRP Ledger's creation rather than an outside commentator. The available figures do not indicate how much of the reported portfolio reduction occurred during the current downturn, nor do they establish a direct relationship between Schwartz's transactions and XRP's recent performance. The key figures to monitor are the scale of his remaining holdings, whether he makes further purchases or sales, and whether other major participants disclose comparable changes in exposure.