XRP Price in Focus as Former Ripple CTO Reveals 23 Million Token Sell-Off

Ripple's former CTO David Schwartz has cut his XRP holdings from about 26 million tokens to 3 million, a reduction of roughly 88.5%, and says the sales followed written trading plans set with an attorney at least 30 days before each one.

He gave the figures in a post on X on 10 November, and in the same post said his Bitcoin had gone from around 1,500 BTC to 1 BTC and his Ethereum from 40,000 ETH to 6 ETH. At current prices, his combined holdings are worth roughly $3.3 million, down from about $221 million.

• Schwartz said he now holds about 3 million XRP, down from roughly 26 million, and has cut his Bitcoin and Ethereum positions to almost nothing.
• XRP traded near $1.05 on 11 November, down 17.8% over the week and 23% year-to-date.
• XRP ETFs are on track for their worst week since March after $18.04 million of week-to-date outflows, per SoSoValue.

The XRP Sales Ran on Written Plans

The mechanics matter more than the headline number. Schwartz sold about 2.5 million XRP during 2025, most of the tokens received in 2020 and 2023, and said those transactions produced roughly $1.7 million in capital gains taxes. He disclosed that detail on 9 November.

He has also described a longstanding agreement with his wife to sell portions of their crypto whenever prices reached new all-time highs. His stated reason for the rest is temperament rather than timing.

"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."

That last part keeps him exposed to Ripple's private valuation even after the token sales, and Ripple-linked ownership is concentrated: the XRPN filing that names SBI, Ripple and Chris Larsen as major holders shows how few names carry it.

XRP Was Falling Before He Said Anything

XRP traded near $1.05 on 11 November, down 2% over 24 hours and 17.8% over the week, in a decline that began on 4 November, days before the disclosure. Bitcoin fell 5.6% over the same week and Ethereum 11.6%, so XRP underperformed both.

The token is down 23% year-to-date, lost the $1.15 support zone, and dipped to $1.05 for the first time since August. CoinGecko data puts the market cap at $81 billion on 3 November and $61 billion on 10 November, a $20 billion fall in a week, before recovering to $67.22 billion.

The disclosure has been read as a drag on price, but there was no noticeable reaction to it, and the slide had started a week earlier.

Whales Added While He Sold

On 11 November, analyst Ali Martinez showed XRP whales had accumulated 65.32 million tokens over four days, pushing their holdings to 4.00 billion. The two sets of numbers point in opposite directions, and only one of them is a trade.

Flow and derivatives data lean careful. CryptoQuant showed the XRP leverage ratio on Binance at 0.14, the lowest in three months. CoinGlass put open interest, the value of outstanding futures contracts, at $2.31 billion, the lowest since 6 August, with 12 straight days of spot outflows.

Those spot outflows peaked at $57.74 million on 11 November, the highest since 5 June. SoSoValue data showed XRP ETFs at $18.04 million of week-to-date outflows, on track for their worst week since March. The crypto fear and greed index sat at 29.