3 million in XRP gone: “That was our entire retirement savings”

INFBusiness
21.10.2025
Markets

This nightmare scenario is probably the fear of every crypto investor who holds their own coins. Due to a small lapse of attention, a 54-year-old American man opened up a target for cybercriminals – and lost 1.2 million XRP as a result.
The incident began earlier this month when Brandon LaRoque discovered that his entire XRP holdings had disappeared from his Ellipal wallet. At current exchange rates, the coins would be worth nearly $3 million.
“I've been accumulating XRP for the past eight years,” LaRoque explained in a YouTube video describing the theft. “This was our entire retirement savings, and I don't know what to do now.”
The problem: The early retiree believed his funds in cold storage would be inaccessible to attackers. However, by importing his seed phrase into the Ellipal app, he effectively converted the setup into a hot wallet.
According to an on-chain investigation by ZachXBT, the attackers were able to convert the stolen XRP through 120 Ripple-to-Tron bridge transactions. Within three days, the assets disappeared from OTC desks associated with Huione, a Southeast Asian payment network subject to US sanctions.
A similar, but even more dramatic, incident occurred recently when a crypto investor lost 2,000 Bitcoin to North Korean hackers within seconds. Read more about it here: ” The World's Most Expensive Click? “
In light of these crimes, a new “recovery economy” that exploits victims' desperation seems particularly dubious. “Another finding is that over 95 percent of recovery companies operate predatorily, demanding large sums for simple reports […],” writes ZachXBT.
He adds skeptically: “Self-custody is not the right solution for the vast majority of people.” With 2FA and other security tools, custody on centralized crypto exchanges could now be easier and more secure for many users.

If you want to trade XRP and other cryptocurrencies or store your coins securely, Coinbase now offers an exclusive €30 bonus in Bitcoin.

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