Larsen’s total net worth is almost $60 billion
The value of the cryptocurrency ecosystem skyrocketed in 2017, with various cryptocurrencies surpassing 1,000% gains. Ripple’s XRP token, for example, was worth about $0,006 in the beginning of 2017 and is currently trading at $3.76. The 60,000% rise helped Ripple become the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market cap, and is now valued at over $140 billion.
No one, however, has benefited more than Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, who is currently the firm’s executive chairman and formerly served as its CEO.
According to Forbes, its co-founder and former CEO Chris Larsen, owns 5.19 billion XRP tokens, currently worth over $16.9 billion. He reportedly also owns 17% of the company, bringing his total net worth to $59.9 billion on paper.
According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, this makes Larsen the eighth-wealthiest person in the world, ranking him just ahead of Google co-founder Larry Page and a few billion dollars behind Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim, who formerly held the title of the world’s richest person.
Amazingly, however, he’s not the only Ripple holder to fly up that list, but he’s the one who went the furthest. It goes without saying that now is probably a good time to invest in Ripple, while it’s still relatively affordable
Jed McCaleb, who left the company in 2013 and later came to an agreement with Ripple over the XRP he owns, said he donated 2 billion XRP to a donor-advised fund. The remaining 5.3 billion XRP as of February 2016 are in a custody account at Ripple and are meted out to him on a monthly basis. Since the agreement was reached, he has been allowed to sell less than 1% of average daily volume on one exchange that now itself accounts for only 1%-2% of all XRP trading volume. If McCaleb had access to all of the XRP at once, he would be a billionaire.
Current Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse owns a 6.3% stake in Ripple, according to a source at the company, and owns additional XRP tokens. He has a net worth of at least $9.5 billion. That would land him at around 54 on the list.
