Headline: Ripple veteran David Schwartz says he regrets selling XRP at $0.10 and 40,000 ETH near $1 — but stood by a low‑risk strategy
David Schwartz, Ripple’s CTO Emeritus, has publicly admitted he wishes he hadn’t sold large early positions in XRP and Ethereum — but stresses those exits were driven by risk management, not a loss of faith in crypto.
In a July 20 post on X, Schwartz confirmed long‑running community anecdotes that he sold XRP when it traded around $0.10 and that he disposed of substantial ETH holdings when the price was about $1. “Obviously, I wish I hadn’t done those things,” he wrote, while explaining that he and his wife had agreed to sell at every new all‑time high to reduce household exposure to volatile assets. “I really, really hate risk,” he added.
What he sold, and why
- XRP: Schwartz’s historical XRP holdings once peaked at roughly 26 million tokens. He began selling when XRP hit $0.10 because that level seemed extremely high at the time; he later said even $0.25 once appeared unlikely.
- Ethereum: He has acknowledged selling roughly 40,000 ETH at about $1.05 each. Schwartz has noted that if he’d thought there was even a 1% chance ETH could reach multi‑thousand dollar levels, he wouldn’t have sold: “If I had thought there was a 1% chance of it hitting $2,368, I would not have sold it for $1.05.”
- Bitcoin and others: Schwartz has also said he sold much of his early Bitcoin at prices far below later market peaks, framing those moves as volatility management rather than a bet against the underlying networks.
A personal, not prescriptive, stance
Schwartz’s repeated acknowledgments of missed upside are underscored by a consistent theme: his trades reflected the information and probability estimates he had at the time and a household decision to lock in gains as prices hit new highs. He emphasizes that this was a personal preference for lower risk and not a recommendation for other investors.
Portfolio shift and ongoing involvement
Over time Schwartz reduced his direct crypto holdings and said in May he had moved much of his wealth outside of cryptocurrencies, retaining exposure to the industry mainly through Ripple equity. He has not published a detailed breakdown of his current holdings.
Although he stepped away from day‑to‑day CTO duties at the end of 2025 and now holds the title CTO Emeritus, Schwartz remains active in the XRP Ledger ecosystem. He continues to code, run independent XRPL infrastructure and research new XRP use cases. In June he supported the XRPL 3.2.0 upgrade by updating his independent hub server — a release that included changes for DeFi, lending and tokenized assets on XRPL.
Context: forecasts, liquidity comments and the SEC case
Schwartz’s comments revisit themes he’s raised in prior months, including a January remark that $0.25 once seemed unlikely for XRP and an April clarification that earlier posts on XRP liquidity weren’t price guarantees but technical explanations of how liquidity interacts with value and transaction size. He’s also spoken about the long‑running legal dispute between Ripple and the SEC, arguing that regulatory language evolved during litigation and that the court later separated the token itself from the circumstances around specific sales.
Bottom line
Schwartz’s admission is straightforward: he regrets the missed returns but stands by the risk‑averse strategy that drove those decisions. For him, selling at new highs was a way to preserve household finances amid deep uncertainty — a trade‑off that reduced potential upside while limiting exposure to volatile markets.
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