Ripple’s 37,000% rise has made its co-founder one of the world’s richest people

Story Highlights

• Chris Larsen, the co-founder and former CEO of Ripple owns 5.19 billion XRP, Forbes reported Tuesday.
• That stash, plus a 17% stake in the company, means he could be worth $37.3 billion.

XRP, another cryptocurrency like Bitcoin for international money transfer by fintech company Ripple has been skyrocketing this winter to no. 2 cryptocurrencies by market capital.

Ripple’s co-founder is one of the world’s wealthiest people after XRP’s 37,000% rise

It raised to $2.47 from the mid-December value of $0.25 and made the co-founder a former CEO of the company one of the wealthiest person.

Chris Larsen who founded Ripple Labs – known as Ripple in 2012 now owns 5.19 billion of its XRP cryptocurrency, reported by Forbes. According to an exchange rate of yesterday his holding value of $12.82 billion.

Forbes also says that Larsen owns a 17% stake in the company, citing sources inside the firm, bringing his total net worth to $37.3 billion. That would make him the 21st richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index — just behind Indian business magnate Mukesh Ambani.

The 57-year-old stepped down as CEO of Ripple in November 2016, turning over the reigns to current CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who owns a 6.3% stake in the company, Forbes reports. Larsen currently serves as chairman.

XRP was best performing cryptocurrencies of 2017 rising 37,900% from $0.0065 per token in January 2017 to $2.47 by the end of the year. The cryptocurrency has a market capitalization of $94 billion according to CoinMarketCap.com just behind the bitcoin and above all other cryptocurrencies.