David Schwartz Defends His XRP Sale, Says It Doesn’t Make Him Morally Inferior

Former Ripple CTO David Schwartz has addressed criticism surrounding his past decisions to sell XRP, arguing that selling is not morally inferior to holding. 

The recent community discussion revolves around his earlier actions and his more recent skepticism about extreme XRP price predictions. Having doubted XRP’s potential to reach $0.25 in its early days, Schwartz now questions the prospect of a $100 or $10,000 price.

Key Points

• Schwartz sold most of his XRP when it hit $0.10, having never believed it would reach $0.25.
• He argues that if wealthy investors believed XRP had a 1% chance of hitting $10,000, buying pressure would have already pushed it to $20.
• The Ripple CTO now defends his early sales, arguing that selling is not morally inferior to holding.
• Schwartz sold 40,000 ETH at $1.05 each, earning $42,000 for tokens now worth $94.2 million.
• Despite his XRP sales, Schwartz confirmed he still holds more than one million tokens.

Schwartz’s Skepticism and XRP Sales

For context, Schwartz previously revealed that he did not believe XRP could reach $0.25 during its early days. Acting on that belief, he sold most of his holdings when the token reached $0.10. 

Meanwhile, in recent remarks, Schwartz also expressed doubt about projections that XRP could climb to ambitious levels such as $100 or even $10,000. 

He argued that if a small group of wealthy investors truly believed there was even a 1% chance of XRP reaching $10,000, they would have already accumulated large amounts of the token. According to him, such buying pressure would have pushed the price to at least $20 by now. 

“Selling XRP Not Morally Inferior”

Following the latest comments, members of the XRP community pointed to Schwartz’s earlier skepticism about XRP reaching $0.25. They stressed that he had underestimated the asset before and suggested that his current doubts about higher valuations might follow the same pattern.

Amid criticisms of his sales, Schwartz defended his actions on X. He noted that everyone had the same opportunity to buy and sell XRP as he did. The Ripple CTO Emeritus also emphasized that he applied the same approach to other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, but rarely criticized those decisions.

Everyone had the same opportunity to buy and sell XRP that I did. I did the same thing with bitcoin and ETH and nobody seems to have a problem with that. I utterly reject the idea that selling is somehow morally inferior to buying and have advocated that everyone sell when it’s…

— David ‘JoelKatz’ Schwartz (@JoelKatz) May 5, 2026

Schwartz insisted that it is wrong to believe that selling assets is “morally inferior” to buying. According to him, investors should act in their own financial interest and should not feel an obligation to prioritize others’ gains over their own. 

He added that he has consistently supported the view that people should sell when it benefits them financially, and this was a principle that originally attracted him to the early Bitcoin community.

Past Crypto Sales from the former Ripple CTO

Besides XRP, Schwartz previously confirmed that he also sold Ethereum and Bitcoin at prices far below their current valuations. 

He revealed that he sold 40,000 ETH tokens at $1.05 each, generating $42,000 at the time. Today, those same tokens would be worth approximately $94.2 million. He added that his current Ethereum holdings now stand at less than 2 ETH.

Schwartz also shared details about his Bitcoin history. He once held more than 1,000 BTC but sold most of it at significantly lower prices. According to him, he sold a large portion of his Bitcoin holdings at $1,000 and nearly all remaining tokens at $7,500. At present, he holds less than 1 BTC.

These disclosures have led to the ongoing scrutiny, with some XRP community members using them as instances of what they think is poor investment judgment. They argue that his past decisions are similar to his current stance on XRP’s future potential.

When a separate community member argued that people who build projects have a responsibility to hold the tokens tied to those projects, Schwartz disagreed. He said he finds the reasoning illogical. He did clarify, however, that he still holds more than one million XRP.