December has been a dynamic month for Ripple, packed with significant appearances at major crypto events. Notably, the company was part of Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai, held from December 3 to 4. Additionally, Ripple marked its presence at the Fintech Abu Dhabi event, taking place from December 8 to 11. The team also attended the Blockchain for Europe Summit in Brussels, Belgium, from December 2 to 3, and hosted a Ripple Christmas Breakfast in London, UK, on December 11.

Ripple CTO’s Memorable Encounter

Amidst these bustling activities, Ripple CTO David Schwartz recounted an amusing incident at one of these events. During a gathering attended by Chris Larsen, Ripple employees, and staff from its latest acquisitions, a new employee approached Larsen with an unexpected question, “So… What do you do at Ripple?”

Schwartz, known for his wit, described the moment as one of the funniest in his career at Ripple. In response to a curious user’s question on X, Schwartz humorously mentioned that Chris Larsen replied, “Um. Well. I guess, I’m sort of the founder.”

Significant Developments at Ripple

The year 2025 has been pivotal for Ripple, marked by four major acquisitions: GTreasury, Rail, Palisade, and Hidden Road. Through these strategic moves, Ripple has invested nearly $4 billion into the crypto ecosystem.

On December 11, Ripple announced the completion of its Rail acquisition, which aims to enhance Ripple Payments as a comprehensive end-to-end stablecoin solution. Earlier in the month, Ripple confirmed a $1 billion acquisition of GTreasury, signifying its expansion into the corporate finance sector, a key area for future digital asset adoption.

In another major development, Ripple has received conditional approval from the OCC to charter Ripple National Trust Bank. This milestone supports the Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin, setting a high standard for stablecoin compliance with federal and state oversight.

As Ripple continues to expand and innovate, the humorous moments and strategic acquisitions reflect its dynamic approach and robust positioning in the cryptocurrency landscape.

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The current XRPUSD trading value is 13% less than its recent all-time highs, showing no signs of recovery after the sell-off. This has led to fresh concerns among investors about becoming the “exit liquidity” as Larsen continues to move large amounts of tokens to exchanges.

Responding to this situation, J. A. Maartunn, a contributor to onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant, advised XRP holders to avoid getting “dumped on”. He warned that the recent 50 million XRP outflows were just a fraction of the huge stash Larsen still possesses.

Maartunn further added, “Chris Larsen (Ripple co-founder) still holds 2.58B $XRP — that’s $8.83B. If $200M was just the warm-up… what’s next?”

Despite the recent sell-off, XRP remains a major altcoin that led the sector’s revival this month, following Bitcoin’s consolidation. As of now, XRPUSD is valued at $3.18, indicating a 13% correction according to Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.

“Don’t get dumped on. Don’t be the exit liquidity. Protect yourself,” Maartunn advised. Other market participants, including trader ManLy, echoed these concerns.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin shrugged off a massive 80,000 BTC sale by a Satoshi-era whale, which caused a brief dip in BTCUSD to around $114,500 before it rebounded. During this volatility, 24-hour crypto liquidations surpassed $500 million, as per data from monitoring resource CoinGlass.

This article does not provide investment advice or recommendations. All investments and trading moves involve risk. Readers are advised to do their own research before making any decision.

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Blockchain investigator ZachXBT first brought attention to these transactions on a platform named X. He highlighted that nearly $140 million of the transferred XRP was sent to centralized exchanges or services. Such transfers are typically seen as an indication of an intention to liquidate.

In a response to a social media user, ZachXBT mentioned, “Chris Larsen’s wallets still have over 2.81 billion XRP (worth $8.4 billion).” This revelation led to an uproar, as this amount represents roughly 4.6% of XRP’s total market cap of $183 billion. Rapid movement of such a large portion could potentially exert significant sell pressure on the market.

Larsen is also being lambasted for the timing of his XRP transfers, which coincided with the cryptocurrency hitting a local high of over $3.60. This was followed by a dip to below $3.10, leading many to accuse Larsen of market manipulation.

However, not all opinions were negative. One user, 0xLouisT, argued that Larsen’s actions were aimed at “decentralizing his holdings to longer-term holders to ensure a fair decentralization of the network and supply.”

At the time of reporting, Larsen had not publicly addressed the allegations. Attempts to reach Ripple for a comment remained futile.

Despite the controversy and price dip, Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad, deputy CEO of Bitpanda, believes that XRP still has the potential to surpass its 2018 all-time high of $3.84. He emphasized that the future of XRP largely lies in favorable market conditions and a continued shift of capital from Bitcoin to altcoins.

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Larsen initiated a sequence of transactions this week, moving approximately $26 million of XRP to Coinbase. This is in addition to the nearly $40 million he has transferred to the exchange since the beginning of the year. These transactions coincide with a surging crypto market, spurred by legislative progress in the Congress during the “Crypto Week” and a bullish Bitcoin market. At present, XRP is trading at $3.23, just $0.20 short of its all-time high of $3.40 set in 2018.

Records from Larsen’s public wallet reveal that he transferred 10 million XRP to Coinbase on January 6 and another 1.5 million tokens on June 16. He has also initiated several transfers to external wallets, which have served as middlemen for exchanges, including Binance. However, it remains unclear whether these tokens have been sold.

DL News, the first to report these transactions on Tuesday, estimates that Larsen has moved $344 million worth of XRP to exchanges and wallets in 2025. Larsen, who co-founded Ripple in 2013 and served as its CEO until 2016, holds an estimated 2.6 billion XRP, valued at over $8.5 billion at current market prices. Forbes last estimated Larsen’s net worth at $9.7 billion, a significant rise from $3.2 billion the previous year.

Ripple has seen a surge in growth since winning parts of its prolonged legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In June, both sides agreed to settle for $50 million, bringing an end to the case first initiated in 2019. Most notably, Ripple acquired prime brokerage firm Hidden Road in April 2025 for $1.25 billion, facilitating its expansion into trading, custody, and lending services. The company is also pursuing a national bank charter and has partnered with BNY Mellon to custody its RLUSD stablecoin reserves, which have reached $500 million by July 2025.

Many Ripple executives, including Larsen, have a history of selling XRP. In its lawsuit, the SEC accused CEO Brad Garlinghouse of personally selling roughly $150 million worth of XRP between 2017 and 2020. Larsen and his wife were accused of selling $450 million during the same period.

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XRP currently ranks fourth on Coin Market Cap with a market cap of over $61.1 billion. It is trading at around $1.35 at the time of writing.

The lawsuit between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple has been ongoing since December 2020. At the time, the SEC has charged Ripple with an illegal securities offering of XRP worth $1.3 billion.  

Last week, Ripple had another small win when the judge allowed the company to look into the SEC’s internal communications, searching for information on what defines cryptocurrency as a security. Also last week, a petition to Gary Gensler, the SEC’s Chairman-Designate, was started asking to end the lawsuit against Ripple.

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A week ago, Gensler spoke about his thoughts on cryptocurrency regulations, specifically the importance of investor protection. During his confirmation hearing, Gensler also commented on viewing cryptocurrencies either as securities or utility tokens. According to his logic, Bitcoin is not a security, but coins like Ripple are.

The lawsuit between the SEC and Ripple started in December 2020 and is still ongoing. Last week, both the CEO Brad Garlinghouse and the Executive Chairman Chris Larsen filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit.  

In the meantime, Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, posted gains of about 14% in the past 7 days and around 2.45% in the past 24 hours. It is trading at around $56,100 at the time of writing and has a market cap of over $1 trillion. The second-largest cryptocurrency, Ether, has gained about 14% in the past 7 days and lost about 2% in the past 24 hours. It is currently trading at around $1,770, per CoinMarketCap.com data.

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CoinDesk.com cites a letter from Larsen’s lawyers informing the judge about a motion to dismiss. In particular, attorneys suggest that the SEC does not provide sufficient support for its claim that the executive chairman violated Section 5 of the Securities Act 1933. Specifically, the lawyers contest Larsen’s knowledge of the status of XRP as a security, CoinDesk.com reports.

In December 2020, SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple, its CEO Garlinghouse, and co-founder Larsen. In particular, the Commission accused Ripple of offering illegal securities to investors amounting to $1.3 billion. The SEC has since then amended its complaint to include the accusation of XRP token’s price manipulation.

The ongoing confrontation between Ripple and SEC did not seem to harm the company’s business activities in the Asia Pacific. According to CoinTelegraph.com, Ripple’s CEO attributes this to clear market regulations in those regions. XRP’s price has increased by over 2% over the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency is trading at about $0.46 at the time of writing.

In related news, MoneyGram is facing a class-action lawsuit from some of the investors who bought securities. In particular, they complain that the company made false statements in relation to XRP and did not confirm its status as a security, Coingeek.com says.

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