David Schwartz hasn’t bought XRP in a ‘long time,’ sold millions in 2025

XRP co-creator and former Ripple CTO David “Joel Katz” Schwartz says he hasn’t “bought XRP in a long time” and that holding Ripple stock is riskier than he’d like. 

Posting to X on Monday, Schwartz said his aversion to risk has led him to sell “nearly all of the digital assets I’ve ever held.”

Schwartz also revealed that he sold around 2.5 million XRP in 2025 while paying $1.7 million in capital gains tax on the sale. 

I haven't bought XRP in a long time. I am very uncomfortable with risk and have sold nearly all of the digital assets I've ever held. I still hold quite a bit of Ripple stock, and that alone is more risk than I wish I had.

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According to Schwartz, he received this XRP in 2020 and 2023 when it hit highs of $0.6 and of $0.8 respectively. It then surged to $3.65 in 2025, increases of 508% and 356%. 

According to Nasdaq Private Market, a secondary market stock tracker, Ripple shares are worth almost $94, down 22% over the last year but up 237% across the last two years. 

Last May, Schwartz told onlookers, “If you want direct exposure to Ripple’s success or failure, you can buy Ripple stock on the secondary market if you qualify under US law. But you probably shouldn’t.”

Schwartz’s controversial XRP take was in response to the CEO of a crypto tax firm and their claim that the IRS is “dramatically” increasing the number of outgoing Letter 6174 notices to crypto traders.

He received one, threw it in the trash, and reminded users that it is “basically just a reminder to follow the law.”

Read more: David Schwartz says don’t invest in Ripple

After someone pointed out that his 2025 XRP sale was made before the introduction of the Clarity Act, Schwartz also noted that he has “a written sales plan that is locked in with an attorney at least 30 days prior to the sale.”

He said, “I don’t ever want to be in a situation where someone can credibly argue that I traded based on, for example, reports of XRPL bugs.”

Schwartz helped co-create the XRP Ledger in 2012 alongside Jed McCaleb and Arthur Britto. He went on to become Ripple’s CTO in 2018 and, after seven years, announced he would step down from the role in September 2025. 

Schwartz’s lifetime XRP sales have never been fully revealed, but he’s claimed to have never owned a nine-figure, or 10-figure, quantity of the token.

In April 2024, he said that his all-time peak holdings of XRP was 26 million.

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Schwartz claims that he and his wife agreed to sell some of his XRP as well as the BTC that he had accumulated at $0.10 and $750, respectively.

Most Ripple execs and their XRP holdings are hidden after Ripple developers accidentally deleted the XRP Ledger’s first 32,569 blocks, erasing transaction data from the firm’s formative years. 

McCaleb has reportedly made $3 billion selling all of his XRP holdings over the years, while Britto’s holdings are hard to track. 

BitMEX Research estimated that Britto received 1 billion XRP in 2012, subject to a lock-up agreement, while an SEC filing suggests he may have received 2 billion XRP instead.  

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