Ripple CTO hints that Satoshi Nakamoto may hold a large amount of XRP

Ripple CTO David Schwartz has hinted that Bitcoin’s anonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto owns a large amount of XRP.

Schwartz made the claim during a 2021 deposition in SEC litigation. During testimony, Ripple CTO hinted that the Bitcoin creator may have owned a large amount of XRP in 2017.

Satoshi Nakamoto may hold XRP

According to him, at the time the Ripple team was working on building a payment system around XRP, and there were no similar efforts for Bitcoin (BTC). He noted that Ripple’s control over XRP gives the company an advantage over its competitors.

When asked whether Ripple’s control over XRP makes the coin different from Bitcoin, he acknowledged the difficulty of tracking Bitcoin-related allocations. However, he said:

“Satoshi Nakamoto, the original creator of Bitcoin, may have held a large amount of XRP at the time (2017).”

A Twitter account focused on Ripple’s history, “Documenting Ripple,” shared excerpts from Schwartz’s testimony.

Is Schwartz Satoshi Nakamoto?

Schwartz’s suggestion is likely to further fuel speculation about whether he is the man behind the anonymous bitcoin creator. Several events have fueled this speculation over the years, and his hints about Satoshi’s XRP holdings are likely to fuel it further.

Another incident that has many speculating that Schwartz could be the face of Satoshi Nakamoto is due to the coincidence between the initial development of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) and Satoshi’s exit from Bitcoin.

Furthermore, Satoshi revealed in 2011 that he planned to move on to other things, which coincides with the same year that Schwartz announced his interest in exploring new things.

Interestingly, Schwartz started developing XRPL together with Arthur Britto and Jed McCaleb. After releasing XRPL in 2012, the company adopted it as a blockchain solution.

Furthermore, Satoshi Nakamoto praised Ripple for building a reliable system that does not value centralization. However, his praise was directed to the original Ripple concept proposed by Ryan Fugger in 2004.

Additionally, Satoshi Nakamoto shared a pre-release version of the Bitcoin code on November 16, 2009, a date that coincides with Schwartz’s birthday.

It’s worth noting that these events, including Schwartz’s disclosure of Satoshi Nakamoto’s massive XRP holdings, do not confirm that the Ripple CTO is the anonymous creator of Bitcoin.

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