David Schwartz, Chief Technology Officer Emeritus at Ripple, has disclosed that his cryptocurrency portfolio is now overwhelmingly concentrated in XRP, alongside his equity stake in the company, signaling a highly focused bet on the ecosystem he helped build.
Ripple Equity and XRP Form the Backbone of Schwartz’s Portfolio
Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz has offered a rare glimpse into the composition of his cryptocurrency portfolio. Schwartz made it clear that his crypto holdings are now overwhelmingly focused on XRP, alongside his equity position in Ripple.
“Yeah, that’s true now. I have virtually no crypto exposure left except XRP and Ripple,” he opined during a recent exchange on X.
Notably, he indicated that this positioning wasn’t the product of a deliberate, long-term strategy. Elaborating further, Schwartz explained that his decisions are shaped by a persistent skepticism toward his own judgment, prompting him to reevaluate and adjust his approach regularly.
In follow-up posts, the chief XRP Ledger (XRPL) architect confirmed that he currently holds more than 1 million XRP, although he personally downplayed the amount, calling it “not a lot.” He also revealed that his holdings were once significantly larger, at one point reaching around 26 million XRP.
 
The revelation has sparked renewed curiosity within the XRP community, with users attempting to piece together an estimate of his true holdings. Some earlier assumptions placed his balance as low as 10,000 XRP, while others examined activity from one of his publicly known wallets—once used to provide liquidity to the XRP/FUZZY AMM pool—as a reference point for a smaller position. At present, that wallet shows roughly 4,800 XRP. However, this snapshot does not reflect his overall holdings, instead indicating that his XRP is likely distributed across multiple wallets rather than stored in a single address.
Sharp Reduction in BTC and Ether Holdings
In additional commentary, Schwartz revealed a dramatic reduction in his exposure to Bitcoin and Ethereum. He stated that he once held over 1,000 BTC and approximately 40,000 ETH. Today, however, his holdings in both have been reduced to less than 1 BTC and under 2 ETH.
He attributed these changes to earlier skepticism about their long-term price trajectories, admitting that he did not anticipate Bitcoin exceeding $100 or Ethereum reaching $2,000. As a result, he sold the majority of his ETH at around $1.05 per token, long before its major price appreciation.
As ZyCrypto reported, Schwartz previously cast doubt on the highly ambitious $10,000 price prediction for XRP, arguing that if deep-pocketed investors genuinely believed there was even a slim chance of such a valuation, their buying activity would already have thrust the price far higher—potentially toward the $20 zone by now.
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