David Schwartz (데이비드 슈워츠), Ripple's former chief technology officer, said he secured a significant amount of Ripple stock in the early days of the company’s founding.

On Aug. 19, blockchain media outlet U.Today reported that Schwartz, on X, answered a question about the size of his retirement compensation after his XRP holdings were disclosed. "I accumulated a lot of Ripple stock in the early days," he wrote.

The remark came shortly after Schwartz said his XRP holdings had fallen to about 2 million from a past peak of about 26 million. After one user asked whether he had sold all his XRP, Schwartz mentioned his current holdings. Another user then guessed his retirement pay must have been substantial, and Schwartz disclosed that he held Ripple equity early on.

Schwartz did not disclose how much Ripple stock he held, what price he bought it at, or how much equity he still has. That makes it difficult to calculate the size of his assets or his retirement compensation based on the remark alone. Still, it shows that his early portfolio was not limited to cryptocurrency.

Schwartz is one of Ripple’s founding members. The XRP Ledger (XRPL) was first launched in June 2012 by Schwartz, Jed McCaleb and Arthur Britto. Chris Larsen later joined, and they founded NewCoin in September 2012. The company soon changed its name to OpenCoin, which later became today’s Ripple.

Schwartz joined Ripple as chief cryptographer and became CTO in 2018. At the end of last year, he stepped back from management duties and became honorary CTO. His final role was joining the board, and he also served as a strategic adviser to XRP treasury company Evernorth.

The remark has drawn attention amid a recent rise in Ripple’s corporate valuation. Ripple raised $500 million on Nov. last year at a valuation of $40 billion. After a $750 million share buyback programme, its current valuation is said to be $50 billion.

Funding has continued. Bloomberg reported that Ripple’s prime brokerage unit recently raised $275 million in the private debt market. The bonds mature in 2031 and carry a coupon of 8.25 percent. Ripple Prime’s senior unsecured bonds also received a BBB rating from ratings agency KBRA.

As a result, market interest is shifting from changes in Schwartz’s personal XRP holdings to the intersection of the shares held by early Ripple figures and the rise in the company’s value. Schwartz’s stake remains undisclosed, but even his brief reply that he accumulated a lot of Ripple stock early on has again brought attention to the possibility that he could be a direct economic beneficiary of Ripple’s growth.

I accumulated a lot of Ripple stock in the early days.