News broke that Ripple, the company hosting the XRP Ledger blockchain and the sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, was just hacked. As a result, XRP’s price came tumbling down to a one-month low today.
The Discovery of the Alleged Ripple Hacking Affair
A couple of hours ago, crypto sleuth ZachXBT reported via the X platform that Ripple was hacked on Tuesday. The theft was discovered to have resulted in the loss of 213 million XRP worth $112.5 million.
The breadcrumbs led to around eight addresses and the stolen funds were traced to have been laundered via several exchanges, including Binance, Kraken, and OKX.
Ripple’s Official Statement
To ease the tension, Ripple’s Executive Chair Chris Larsen immediately went to the social media site to clarify a few things. According to him, the hack targeted his XRP accounts and not Ripple’s wallet.
Larsen ensured that they immediately caught the problem and had already notified the crypto exchanges hosting the wallet addresses involved in the incident. His team requested the addresses linked to the cyberattack to be frozen as they are working with law enforcement authorities to resolve the matter.
Ripple spokesperson Stacey Ngo also confirmed, “Ripple was not impacted.”
XRP Takes a Dive
The buzz created by the cyberattack sure caused a lot of concern from the crypto community. The event consequently led to XRP temporarily dipping to a one-month low of $0.4945.
As of this writing near 6:00 PM (UTC), XRP is trading at $51.24 with a 2.51% drop in the 24-hour chart. The same frame notably started in the $0.52 territory for the token before trading flat at $0.51 prior to the Ripple cyberattack breaking out.
The incident impacted the trading volume of XRP as it rose by 87% while $1.95 billion worth of the token moved between addresses. Presently, the native token of the XRP Ledger is 86% below its all-time high of $3.84 back in January 2018.
Ripple’s Court Case
The hacking affair just adds up to the current troubles Ripple is facing. To date, the company is still battling the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in court. The point of contention lay on the regulator’s allegation that Ripple failed to abide by security laws in its sale of XRP.
Last year, Analisa Torres, the presiding judge, partially sided with Ripple in its ruling that XRP’s sale to retail customers didn’t constitute a sale of security. However, its sale to investors fell under the jurisdiction of the SEC.