Ripple’s David Schwartz Says He Sold Nearly All of His Crypto. What Did He Keep?

David Schwartz, a key architect of the XRP Ledger, wrote on X on November 9, 2026, that he has “sold nearly all of the digital assets I’ve ever held.” He noted that he hasn’t bought XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) in quite some time. However, he still holds a large amount of Ripple stock, admitting that the equity alone carries more risk than he would prefer.

After his posts, XRP kept falling. As of November 10, the coin trades at $1.04, just 4% above the $1 mark, after a 6% drop over 24 hours. XRP is down 43.5% this year and 71.5% below its all-time high of $3.65, set in July 2025.

Schwartz had already disclosed selling about 2.5 million XRP in 2025, worth about $2.6 million at the November 10 price, and paying around $1.7 million in capital gains tax on those sales. So one of the people who helped build the XRP Ledger now holds mostly company shares and very little crypto. What did he keep, and what does it mean for XRP holders?

Schwartz Kept His Ripple Stock and a Strict Selling Plan

Schwartz still owns shares in Ripple. Because Ripple is a private company, its shares don’t trade on public exchanges, and their value is tied to the company’s performance. Ripple’s business includes a cross-border payments network, a custody service that stores digital assets for institutional clients, and RLUSD, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar.

Ripple also holds a large XRP reserve in escrow, which releases coins on a monthly schedule, and the company sells from that supply. So even though he has sold most of his personal crypto, Schwartz’s shares still give him some indirect exposure to XRP through Ripple’s treasury.

He attributed his selling to his cautious approach to risk. Schwartz described himself as uneasy about risk and said even his Ripple stake is more exposure than he is comfortable with. He didn’t give any figure for the crypto he still holds, so “nearly all” is the most precise measure on record.

He also explained how he sold. Every XRP sale followed a written plan set with legal counsel at least a month in advance, so critics couldn’t credibly argue that he traded on reports of XRP Ledger bugs. Public-company executives use similar prearranged plans to avoid insider trading.

Ripple Stock and XRP Can Move Apart, Which Is Why His Split Stake Stands Out

Ripple stock and XRP are distinct assets. Ripple’s newer business lines run on dollars and RLUSD, and its recent announcements haven’t committed any bank to settling payments in XRP. For instance, when a U.S. bank added RLUSD to its core system, XRP’s price barely reacted, and the coin has lagged behind the broader crypto market.

In the same thread, Schwartz stressed this separation. He argued that informed people haven’t claimed that XRP’s use as gas, the small fee charged on each ledger transaction, would significantly boost its price. He also dismissed the notion that Ripple is hiding a secret strategy from XRP holders.

That said, Schwartz did offer XRP holders some hope. He wrote that it is hard to believe the XRP Ledger succeeds while “XRP fails to capture a good fraction of that value,” an argument tested in October. However, he didn’t explain how that value would reach the coin, and he said a linked post covered only part of the answer.

Schwartz offered no price prediction and no plan to buy back in, and his actions reflect personal caution. His choice to trim a volatile coin while keeping hard-to-sell company stock fits his risk-averse mindset, and since his sales were planned weeks in advance, they weren’t reactions to any news.

Will David Schwartz’s Ripple Stock Support XRP’s Price?

Schwartz’s stock ownership doesn’t directly affect XRP’s price. Ripple and XRP have separate fortunes, and while Schwartz remains a significant figure at Ripple with a financial interest in its success, XRP doesn’t automatically benefit. He has already sold most of his crypto and has no stated plan to buy back in, and the coin trades below its 20-day, 50-day, and 200-day moving averages, a sign of broad selling that began before his posts.

However, two specific events could change this outlook. If Schwartz announces he has bought XRP again, or Ripple’s next RLUSD or payments announcement names XRP as the settlement asset, his equity stake and XRP could start to align. Until then, the main support Schwartz offers XRP is his belief that if the ledger succeeds, XRP should also gain value.

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