Ripple just gave its co-founder $26 million

The co-founder and former chief technical officer (CTO) of Ripple (XRP) just received a payout that has left Ripple fans a little woozy. Jeb McCaleb, according to the Whale Alert Twitter account, is the recipient of 100 million XRP and there is now fear that McCaleb could decide to cash out his digital currency in favor of fiat. If he were to do so, it would mean a payday of about $26 million, reason enough for XRP followers to be concerned.

Whale Alert raised the flag on Saturday, tweeting: 

🚨 🚨 100,000,000 #XRP (26,322,440 USD) transferred from Ripple to Jed McCaleb wallet

Tx: https://t.co/z0hfij5kmE

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) September 7, 2019

If he were so inclined, McCaleb could dump the holdings and XRP would take a nosedive straight into the ground. 

On the other hand, perhaps McCaleb will just look to use it to shore up another crypto project, Stellar Lumens. He became the project’s CTO after leaving Ripple Labs in 2013 to launch the Stellar Development Foundation.

McCaleb is also associated with another crypto-focused entity that only conjures images of maleficence, treachery and theft. He is the man who actually put together the Mt Gox Bitcoin exchange before selling it to Mark Karpeles in 2011. Karpeles subsequently ran the exchange into the ground and, to this day, is still seen as the perpetrator of one of the largest crypto thefts in history. McCaleb was still on board as a minority owner when the exchange suddenly ran out of funds and turned off its lights in 2014.

Many have expected XRP to reach new heights as Ripple’s platforms have become integrated into the operations of a number of global financial institutions. However, the value of the digital currency has remained substantially weak. This is due in part to several lawsuits and ambiguity surrounding the coin’s legal standing, but also because of McCaleb.

He has continuously been selling his holdings over the past couple of years, and XRP supporters are getting frustrated. At the beginning of last year, he reportedly owned about $20 billion in XRP and, according to Ripple, the only thing holding him back from dumping it all at once are lawsuits and agreements against him. However, XRP still teeters on the edge and many expect it to topple before too much longer.