2017 had paved numerous success stories of investors who managed to jump into the crypto express bang on time. With a market cap of around $761 Billion (at the time of publishing this article), cryptocurrencies managed to mint a bevy of millionaires in the last fiscal. Some were lucky enough to be welcomed in the billionaire’s club. And if you think that they did it all by weighing down on bitcoins, then you really need to broaden your imagination and knowledge of the digital world. Bitcoin is hands down the leader of the crypto movement having a market capitalization of a whopping $250 billion. But a large number of dark horses are emerging out of the blue with every passing day and taking the world of virtual currencies by storm. One such cryptocurrency which had been creating an uproar recently and for all the right reasons is Ripple’s XRP token.
Also Read: The Number Of Bitcoin Billionaires Worldwide Could Be 200 And Counting
Both the former and current CEO of the San Francisco-based company Ripple which had been using blockchain technology to foster international financial transactions have bagged their position amongst the list of wealthiest Americans. The XRP token issued by the company was trading on Monday 1st January,2018 at $2.39 . With a market cap of $144 Billion ( at the time of publishing this article), Ripple had outshined Ethereum in the race of becoming the second most valuable cryptocurrency in the list of top cryptocurrencies as per market capitalisation.
Chris Larsen, the former CEO and co-founder had stepped down from the position on November 2016 and is presently serving as Ripple’s executive chairman. He is rumoured to have XRP holdings worth 5.19 billion along with 17% company stake. This shall help him accumulate a corpus worth $37.3 billion if we take the exchange rate of Monday.
With this magnanimous holding, Chris Larsen has positioned himself in the 15th slot of the richest American on the 2017 Forbes 400 list as on Monday. He is sharing his position with current owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Chris has secured a rank ahead of investor Carl Icahn and hedge funder Ray Dalio both of whom made it to the headlines after comparing Bitcoin with a price bubble and Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson who herself is a big-time bitcoin aficionado. Brad Garlinghouse, the current CEO of Ripple owning a 6.3% stake in the company has also churned out hefty profit figures courtesy the significant price movement of XRP tokens. His net worth is estimated to be $9.5 billion at the very least imparting to him the 54th position in the same list just two notches below Charles Schwab.
The price of XRP boomeranged in 2017 starting from a price of just $0.006 on 1st January to being traded at $2.30 on 31st December thus bringing along a return of 38000%. Ripple cofounder Jed McCaleb had also earned in bulk following this price hike of XRP. He had left the company back in 2013 but simultaneously came into a common point of conclusion over his XRP holdings. McCaleb revealed that he had made a donation to a donor-advised fund worth 2 billion XRP tokens. The remaining 5.3 billion XRP as on February 2016 have been kept in a custody account with the company for being melted out to him monthly. He was allowed to sell tokens less than 1% of the average daily volume on a single exchange presently accounting for 1-2% of the entire XRP trading volume. McCaleb could surely be termed as a Billionaire if he gains access to his entire holding all at once.
Also Read: Techcrunch Founder Launching $100 Million Ripple (XRP) Hedge Fund
McCaleb is the founder of the crypto exchange Mt Gox. He sold all his bitcoins thereafter to set up Ripple. After leaving Ripple he established Stellar but his holding of one billion Lumen each having a valuation of 48 cent could not earn him the billionaire cap till now.
Similar to Ripple, Stellar also witnessed huge price gains in the ongoing altcoins season. The price of Stellar was $0.02 in the early November 2017 and is presently priced at $0.8 with a market cap of $15,980,431,765 making it the Seventh most valuable cryptocurrency
Ripple has a user base of more than 100 including industry big-shots such as Santander and American Express using the technology of Ripple to collaborate in between U.S-to-U.K. payments. The company issues XRP tokens which is less decentralized when compared with other cryptos. Ripple for instances has a total holding of 61.3 billion XRP including 55 billion kept in escrow. This leaves only 38.7 billion tokens for distribution. Bitcoin stands in stark contrast with much less concentration although certain early holders boast of large holdings.
Also Read: American Express Collaborates With Ripple To Improve It’s Global Payment Services
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Tarunima Ghosh Laha is a Finance Post Grad from St. Xaviers who believes Finance is more than just Balance Sheets and Ledger creation. This filmy bookworm who believes she was a sloth in past life also nourishes a penchant of owning a private zoo someday. Equipped with a laptop and online Lexicon she is all set to give finance a glamorous makeover in the form of exciting writeups with bang on info and flashy new words.
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