There has been a recent Ripple hack but according to Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of the crypto payment protocol, no wallet was compromised in the process.
Garlinghouse Shuns False Ripple Hack Claims
A few hours ago, it was reported that Ripple had suffered a major breach with $112.5 million worth of XRP coins lost in the attack. The news caused the price of the XRP token to fall by about 4%. According to ZachXBT, the initial breach originated from an address identified as “rJNLz3….ojm.”
After successfully carrying out the Ripple hack, the perpetrators moved on to conduct a complex laundering operation. The loot was redirected to several exchanges including Gate, MEXC, and even leading digital asset service provider Binance. Notably, the intention for this distribution was to obfuscate the source of the assets and make recovery a herculean task.
Consequently, Chris Larsen, Ripple’s co-founder and executive chairman released an official statement describing the extent of the exploit. He mentioned that the compromised wallet was his personal address and does not belong to Ripple Labs. He described the effort underway to reduce the effect of the Ripple hack including working with law enforcement agencies. He further explained that the incident was isolated, citing that all Ripple wallets are secured and were never compromised.
However, it seems his explanation met with doubts in the minds of netizens as several speculations and derogatory remarks began to crop up. Displeased by these rumors and speculatory reports, Garlinghouse took to X to reiterate Larsen’s explanation.
“Given some irresponsible speculation and reporting, I want to reiterate that NO Ripple-managed wallets were compromised. Full stop,” the Ripple CEO pointed out.
Warning to Crypto Customers
It is quite obvious that hackers are exploring different methods to carry out their illicit activities. A few weeks ago, it was a deepfake video of the Ripple CEO that surfaced on the internet. Garlinghouse was seen convincing users to double their assets by sending them to the disguised hacker. The ‘giveaway” was advertised as a community support initiative designed for loyal XRP customers.
Amidst the diversification of scamming methods, investors and traders are advised to remain vigilant, avoiding suspicious links and emails. Garlinghouse made a similar warning to XRP community members when his cloned videos were seen circulating on YouTube.
