Why Did Ripple’s Co-Creator Sell XRP at 10 Cents? David Schwartz Answers

David Schwartz, Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer Emeritus, has reignited a six-month-old debate about his early crypto sales. The XRP Ledger co-creator replied to an old post on X. XRP holders now speculate the timing hints at a new peak.

Schwartz stepped back from daily Ripple duties at the end of 2025. He remains active in the XRP Ledger community and still answers questions about his personal holdings.

Old XRP Regret Resurfaces on X

Schwartz finally responded to an old post from January, in which another user had resurfaced his history of selling XRP at $0.10 and Ethereum near $1. He did not dodge the question this time.

Schwartz owned the old decisions outright, then laid out the reasoning behind them in the same reply.

Obviously, I wish I hadn't done those things. But I agreed with my wife to sell at every new ATH and I really, really hate risk. I wish I was more comfortable with risk, but I'm just not that person.

— David 'JoelKatz' Schwartz (@JoelKatz) July 20, 2026

He pointed to a long-standing pact with his wife to trim exposure at every new all-time high, the highest price an asset has ever reached, because he strongly dislikes financial risk.

Schwartz once held about 26 million XRP tokens. He has steadily trimmed that position since, a history he revisited during the XRP origins debate earlier this year.

A Family Pact Behind Every Sale

Schwartz frames the sales as risk management, not doubt in the technology. That same pact governed every asset he held, not just XRP.

The same logic applied to Ethereum. In May, he wrote that a mere one percent chance of Ethereum reaching $2,368 would have stopped him from selling at $1.05.

Ripple’s XRP strategy has drawn scrutiny before this reply. The company nearly shut down during its lawsuit with the SEC. Schwartz has also addressed sandwich attack risks on the ledger.

XRP Still Trades Well Below Its Peak

XRP traded near $1.13 on July 21, up 4.1% over 24 hours, according to BeInCrypto’s market data. That price sits well below the token’s $3.65 all-time high from July 2025.

The community speculates that he wants to remind investors to take profits at the upcoming all-time high rather than risk missing out. Similar speculation followed Cardano’s recent meltdown, where sentiment often outran the data.

However, nothing in Schwartz’s post referenced price targets or timing. His comments addressed personal choices from years ago, not a market forecast.

Whether XRP challenges its 2025 peak may hinge on broader market conditions. A single reply from a former executive likely will not decide it. Instead, the entire industry is looking ahead to the CLARITY Act, whose upcoming vote in the U.S. Senate is set to permanently establish the regulatory framework for crypto and XRP.