Ripple EX CTO Says He Doesn’t Feel Comfortable Sharing Optimism About XRP

David Schwartz, the former chief technology officer of Ripple, says he is hesitant to openly share his optimism about XRP.

He noted that market watchers could view such a move as self-serving or even market manipulation. The comments came after a community member encouraged him to use his influence to speak more positively about XRP and its future role in global finance.

Key Points

• David Schwartz says he avoids openly hyping XRP to prevent appearing self-serving or manipulative.
• Schwartz describes himself as a cautious investor willing to miss huge gains rather than take extreme risks.
• Ripple’s former CTO revealed he once held 26M XRP, 1,000+ BTC, and 40,000 ETH before selling most of them.
• Schwartz argues investors should freely decide when to buy or sell crypto without pressure from communities.

Schwartz Says He Prefers Lower Risk

The latest exchange followed an earlier conversation this week where Schwartz discussed his cautious investment style despite being an early crypto adopter.

According to Schwartz, he recognizes crypto could still be a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity. However, he admitted he has never been comfortable taking extreme financial risks.

He explained that while many investors pride themselves on having “diamond hands,” he sees himself differently.

“I’m the smart, sensible investment guy who might miss the big opportunities. And I’m okay with that.”

Schwartz also reflected on how avoiding excessive risk likely prevented him from becoming significantly wealthier, even though many of his crypto bets turned out successful.

Debate Over His Early Ethereum Sale

The discussion began after XRP community figure Diana joked about Schwartz previously selling his Ethereum holdings at around $1.05.

She argued that if Schwartz had believed there was even a small chance ETH could eventually reach thousands of dollars, he would not have sold.

Responding to the remark, Schwartz clarified that at the time he sold, he was not convinced the odds of Ethereum reaching such levels were high enough to justify holding.

His comments referenced an earlier statement where he questioned why major investors were not aggressively accumulating XRP if they genuinely believed it had a realistic chance of reaching $10,000 in the future.

According to Schwartz, if wealthy investors truly believed there was even a 1% chance of XRP reaching that level within a decade, the asset would already be trading significantly higher today.

Schwartz Reveals He Reduced Most XRP Holdings

During the exchange, X user Tom Toman asked Schwartz whether he was still holding XRP.

Schwartz replied that he no longer has large crypto exposure and has gradually shifted most of his assets away from digital currencies, except for his Ripple stock holdings.

He revealed that he once owned 26 million XRP, over 1,000 Bitcoin, and 40,000 Ethereum. According to Schwartz, those holdings have now been reduced dramatically, with less than one Bitcoin and fewer than two ETH remaining.

However, he noted that his definition of “not much” XRP still amounts to more than one million tokens.

Meanwhile, Schwartz defended his decision to sell portions of his holdings over the years. He argues that investors should prioritize their own financial interests rather than feel pressured to hold assets indefinitely for the benefit of others.

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

He added that the belief people should freely decide when to buy or sell was one of the ideas that originally attracted him to the early Bitcoin community.