David Schwartz, the Chief Technology Officer of Ripple and a creator of the XRP Ledger, has publicly detailed a costly early exit from Ethereum. In a recent post on X, Schwartz revealed he sold 40,000 ETH when the token was trading near $1.05, having initially purchased the tokens at $0.311. This sale, which generated roughly $42,000 and represented a 321% return at the time, has since become a story of a missed multi-billion dollar opportunity as Ethereum's price surged into the thousands of dollars in subsequent years.
Schwartz explained he acquired the ETH allocation after a personal invitation from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, contributing 20 BTC to support the project in its formative stage. He used the proceeds from the sale to install solar panels at his former home in Oakland, California, translating the crypto gains into a tangible real-world investment.
The revelation came during a casual exchange on X, where Schwartz responded to a story from tech YouTuber Dave Jones about selling Ethereum early. Schwartz commented, "Same. Sold 40,000 ETH at $1.05 and thought that I was an investing genius," highlighting that even seasoned industry insiders experience mistimed exits.
The conversation later shifted to XRP, where Schwartz made a notable, understated comment about the asset. When Jones mentioned acquiring more XRP, Schwartz replied, "Whenever people tell me they hold or bought XRP, I always tell them that I hope they do really well. They think that I’m being nice to them." Within the XRP community, this was widely interpreted as a quiet show of confidence in the asset's long-term future, consistent with Schwartz's typical focus on technology and adoption over price hype.
Schwartz also disclosed parts of his current crypto portfolio, confirming holdings in Bitcoin and Ethereum alongside several altcoins. He previously held up to 20 million XRP but opted for a 2% equity stake in Ripple instead, making his net worth highly dependent on Ripple's valuation.
