Hackers attack one of the most famous cryptocurrency platforms

The popular blockchain project Ripple has been attacked by unknown hackers. Amid the news, the ecosystem’s native token dropped by 3.7% from $ 0.52 per XRP to $ 0.49, according to CoinGecko.

According to Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, several personal accounts belonging to him, not the company, were accessed unauthorizedly. The team quickly identified the problem and asked the exchanges to freeze the addresses. Law enforcement has already joined the investigation, Larsen said.

It appears @Ripple was hacked for ~213M XRP ($ 112.5M)

Source address
rJNLz3A1qPKfWCtJLPhmMZAfBkutC2Qojm

So far the stolen funds have been laundered through MEXC, Gate, Binance, Kraken, OKX, HTX, HitBTC, etc pic.twitter.com/HKGYsLQeMv

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) January 31, 2024

Online detective ZachXBT wrote in X that Ripple has suffered a large-scale hack. As a result of the attack, the attackers stole approximately 213 million in XRP tokens ($ 112 million). According to preliminary data, the cybercriminals laundered the stolen funds through such platforms as MEXC, Gate, Binance, Kraken, OKX, HTX, and HitBTC.

In 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs, claiming that the firm committed fraud by selling XRP tokens without prior registration as securities. However, Larsen and his company won a big victory in July 2023, when the judge did not define XRP as a security.

In September, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse called the United States one of the riskiest jurisdictions for the development of the cryptocurrency business.

As a reminder, crypto analyst Egragcrypto said that the native token of the Ripple XRP project is on the verge of a grand rally. According to the expert, XRP will soar from current levels to $ 5.50 in just 14 days.