David Schwartz, co-founder of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) and long-time CTO of Ripple, has announced that he will step down from his day-to-day role as Chief Technology Officer at the end of this year after more than 13 years with the company.
Although stepping back from daily responsibilities, Schwartz will assume the title of CTO Emeritus and join Ripple’s Board of Directors, ensuring continued involvement in the company’s long-term strategy and mission.
In his farewell statement, Schwartz reflected on his career and contributions:
“Over the past 40 years, I’ve had an incredible journey—from consulting for the NSA to witnessing the early days of Bitcoin. Meeting Arthur [Britto], Jed [McCaleb], and Chris [Larsen] and working on the XRP Ledger has been a remarkable experience. These 13+ years at Ripple have been some of the most meaningful of my professional life.”
Schwartz cited personal reasons for stepping down, emphasizing the desire to spend more time with his family and pursue personal hobbies. However, he reassured the community that he is not leaving XRPL, stating:
“I will continue to be part of the XRP community—you will still see me around, now and always.”
Even after stepping down, Schwartz plans to remain technically active: running his own XRPL node, exploring new use cases for XRP outside of Ripple’s projects, and continuing to write code for the love of it.
Schwartz has been involved with the XRP Ledger since 2011, even before the creation of the first block, and has always maintained transparency about his holdings, never owning more than 26 million XRP.
The announcement came shortly after news that Swift, the world’s largest banking payment network, selected Linea (powered by Consensys) for testing on-chain messaging—a competitor to XRPL. This decision disappointed some XRP supporters who had hoped for Ripple or XRPL adoption.
Despite this, Ripple continues to advance its roadmap, and Schwartz’s ongoing role as CTO Emeritus and board member ensures that his expertise and vision will remain integral to the company’s future.
