Ripple co-founder and longtime chief technology officer David Schwartz has updated his bio on X to reflect his new role as CTO emeritus, marking the start of a new phase in his relationship with the company and the XRP community.
Schwartz, one of the original architects of the XRP Ledger, announced in September that he would step back from daily CTO responsibilities at the end of 2025 to focus on family and personal projects related to XRP. His X profile now lists him as “CTO Emeritus at Ripple,” confirming the transition at the beginning of 2026.
As part of this shift, Schwartz accepted an invitation from Ripple chairman Chris Larsen to join the company’s board of directors. He also took on an advisory role at Evernorth, an XRP-focused treasury company, later in the year.
Despite moving away from day-to-day operations, Schwartz says he remains deeply involved in the XRP ecosystem. He continues to run an XRP Ledger node, publish its output data and explore new use cases for XRP beyond Ripple’s core focus.
Schwartz has been central to XRP’s development since co-launching the XRP Ledger in June 2012 alongside Arthur Britto and Jed McCaleb.
As the crypto community reacts to his new status, Schwartz has also issued a warning about social media impersonators, particularly on Instagram.
The reminder came after an X user, apparently a member of the XRP community, mentioned tagging Schwartz on Instagram. In response, Schwartz cautioned that he almost never uses the platform and that accounts claiming to be him are highly likely to be fraudulent.
“I almost never use instagram. Anyone you see there claiming to be me is 99.8% likely to be a scammer,” Schwartz wrote.
His warning underscores ongoing concerns about impersonation and scams targeting crypto users on major social platforms.