The short version
- David Schwartz XRP holdings fell from a high of about 26 million to about 3 million, he said on X on Tuesday, with BTC down from 1,500 to 1 and ETH from 40,000 to 6.
- He says he agreed with his wife to sell at every new all-time high and still holds “quite a bit of Ripple stock.”
- XRP trades at $1.058 at the time of writing, down 17% on the week and sitting on support at $1.0535.
“It’s not a secret.”
That is how David Schwartz, Ripple’s CTO emeritus and one of the people who designed the XRP Ledger, opened his answer on X, where he posts as JoelKatz, late on Tuesday. Then he gave the numbers. He thinks he is down from a high of around 26 million XRP to around 3 million. Down from around 1,500 BTC to 1. And down from around 40,000 ETH to 6.
The David Schwartz XRP numbers landed with XRP at $1.058, down 17% on the week. So did one of the best-known names in XRP just dump on holders?
XRP commentator Digital Perspectives put the whole thing in two lines, including the part many replies skipped:
David Schwartz says his de-risking is no secret: ~26M XRP down to ~3M, ~1,500 BTC to 1, ~40K ETH to 6.
His reason: he agreed with his wife to sell at every new ATH, and he says he hates risk. Still ~3M XRP, not zero.
Why Did David Schwartz Sell?
Because he hates risk, by his own account. In a July post he linked, he wrote that he “agreed with my wife to sell at every new ATH and I really, really hate risk.”
A day earlier, on November 9, he said he has not bought XRP “in a long time” and has “sold nearly all of the digital assets I’ve ever held.” He still holds “quite a bit of Ripple stock,” which he called more risk than he wished he had.
So the chain is simple:
- A new all-time high (ATH) comes.
- Schwartz sells part of his stack, as agreed at home.
- Years of that leave around 3 million XRP out of a peak of 26 million.
That is a drop of about 88% in his XRP count. The Bitcoin and Ethereum stacks went almost to zero.
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Is the David Schwartz XRP Sale a Dump on Holders?
Not in the way the angriest replies suggest. He gave no dates and no sale prices, so nobody outside knows when those coins were sold. What he describes is years of selling into rallies, spread over every new high.
For scale: 26 million XRP at the $3.65 peak of July 17, 2025 would have been worth about $94.9 million. His roughly 3 million XRP are worth about $3.2 million at the time of writing.
The part worth thinking about is different. A man who helped build the ledger still holds a large stake in Ripple stock while his token stack shrank by 23 million XRP. That is his choice, and he has said so openly. But anyone holding XRP mainly because they assume insiders are holding too just got a plain answer about how one insider manages his own money.
The Bitcoin line is the bigger number. 1,500 BTC is about $111 million at today’s Bitcoin price of $74,063, and he kept one coin. Selling early is a regret plenty of long-time holders share, and he admitted as much in July: “Obviously, I wish I hadn’t done those things.”
SIDE TRAIL: Why Is XRP Down? Lowest Since August as Binance Hacker Starts Moving Coins
Where Is the XRP Price Now?
The XRP price is $1.058, down 3.01% in 24 hours and 25% over 30 days. That is 71% below the July 2025 all-time high. The token is sitting right on support at $1.0535; under it, the area to watch is $0.9862, the August 14 low. Above, $1.1302 is the first level to reclaim, with the 200-day moving average (MA), which tracks where XRP closed on average over 200 days, much higher at $1.2636.
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index reads 29, in fear. Schwartz, for his part, still has about 3 million XRP left and a rule that only sells into a new ATH. As he put it in July: “I wish I was more comfortable with risk, but I’m just not that person.”
TRAIL MAP: XRP Price Sinks to a One-Month Low Near $1.28 as Whale Wallets Shrink
Teddy has been trading crypto since 2016. The focus is altcoins and EMA setups: finding coins sitting on key levels, waiting for support to hold or a range to be reclaimed, and trading the move from there. Bitcoin sets the tone, but the opportunities are usually in the alts.
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