2017 has undoubtedly been the year of cryptocurrencies due to the digital currencies surge in the last few months. But did it ever occurred to you that owning few digital coins can make you one of the richest people in the world? Well, all thanks to the skyrocketing values of cryptocurrencies that made Chris Larsen, the Ripple co-founder, one of the richest people in the world overnight.
Chris Larsen, the co-founder and former CEO of Ripple, a San Francisco-based company using blockchain technology in international financial transactions which issues the cryptocurrency token called XRP, made a sea of billions after the value of XRP jumped from $0.25 in December last year to $3.16 on this Wednesday. This cryptocurrency has become the second most valuable crypto asset after Bitcoin.
Currently, Larsen holds a 17% stake in the company which values around $37.3 billion in the market and he also holds a 5.19 billion XRP. The net worth of Larson is around $54.2 billion (XRP value $3.48). Earlier when the XRP value $3.84, his net worth was around $59.9 billion that reached a position just Mark Zuckerberg who ranks fourth with a worth of $74.4 billion. These ranks also made Larsen ahead of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin who ranked 8th and 10th respectively.
According to Larsen, if Ripple can be given such a huge value, then so can Bitcoin. He made a statement that:
“If centralised Ripple is worth $320 (billion) then decentralised Bitcoin is (definitely) going to be worth trillions.”
“One of the reasons why I think XRP has done very well recently is… Bitcoin is not in a position to solve a payments problem, particularly when you talk about micropayments.”
Will Chris Larsen be able to sustain in the world’s richest people list? Share your views in the comments!
