In late January, reports surfaced regarding the hacking of personal accounts belonging to Chris Larsen, the co-founder and executive chairman of Ripple, a cryptocurrency company. Initially, the breach was misinterpreted as a broader issue within the company, but it was later clarified to affect only Larsen's private XRP accounts.

Larsen addressed the incident, stating, "Yesterday, there was unauthorized access to a few of my personal XRP accounts. We immediately identified the issue, halted the affected addresses, and are working with law enforcement."

While Larsen did not disclose the precise amount lost, crypto analyst ZachXBT estimated that approximately 213 million XRP were stolen, valued at around $112.5 million based on the current exchange rate. The perpetrators reportedly transferred the funds across multiple exchanges in an alleged money laundering attempt.

It's important to note that law enforcement has frozen any potentially involved accounts as a result of the breach. However, it remains unclear whether the stolen funds are still within any exchange's control. Ripple has not yet provided a comment on the incident.

Following the news of the hack, there was a slight decrease in the price of XRP, dropping by approximately $0.01. However, it quickly recovered to its previous value. Despite the breach being limited to Larsen's personal accounts, posing no direct threat to XRP holders, this event stands as one of the most significant cryptocurrency-related hacks of 2024 thus far.