CHRIS Larsen co-founded Ripple in 2012 to allow international payments for banks using blockchain technology.
But what is the story behind Larsen and what is his net worth now after he became the fifth richest person open the planet in 2018?
Who is Chris Larsen?
Chris Larsen was born in San Francisco, California, in 1960.
His mother was a freelance illustrator, while his father was an aircraft mechanic for United Airlines.
After leaving high school, Larsen went to San Francisco State University, where he earned a BS in international business and accounting, graduating in 1984.
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He then went to work for Chevron, doing financial audits in Brazil, Ecuador, and Indonesia before doing an MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business and graduating in 1991.
In the early 1990s, Larsen worked as a mortgage lender in Palo Alto, California.
While there he became friends with Janina Pawlowski and it didn’t take long for the pair to quit their jobs and start a mortgage business.
This happened in 1992 and by 1996, they had switched their focus from loans to the development of a mortgage lending website.
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Both Larsen and Pawlowski were frustrated with parts of the mortgage lending sector and saw the internet as a way to avoid huge agent commissions and other fees.
At first, the pair raised $450,000 from friends and family and moved from a small Palo Alto office to a larger but cheaper one.
The E-Loan website went live to the public in 1997 and allowed borrowers to search and shop for loans directly, without having fees from brokers and sales agents.
But by 1998, E-Loan ran into financial difficulty and the pair were soon in talks with Intuit over a $130 million buyout.
Pawlowski and Larsen, who held a 40 per cent stake, would each walk away with $10 million in cash and $16 million in stock in Intuit.
Then days before the deal was about to close, Yahoo CEO Timothy Koogle pitched to buy a 23 per cent stake of E-Loan’s outstanding shares for $25 million.
Both Larsen’s and Pawlowski received smaller payouts, but they retained control of the company.
By October 1999 the company had gone public and employed around 350 people – making the company worth around $1 billion.
Larsen stepped down as CEO in 2005 to start Prosper Marketplace with John Witchel and the company was sold to Banco Popular.
Prosper is a peer-to-peer lending marketplace.
It’s an eBay-style online auction with lenders and borrowers determining loan rates using a Dutch auction system (a method of selling where the price is reduced until a buyer is found).
Through the website, borrowers can request personal loans, while Prosper handles the servicing of the loan and distributes borrower payments and interest back to the loan investors.
Larsen funded 450 loans through the website up until 2008, with borrowers as diverse as homeowners, college students, credit-card users, and entrepreneurs.
By 2008, Prosper had facilitated the funding of more than $120 million in loans, with the average loan amount of $7,000.
Larsen personally funded 450 loans through the website.
In 2012, Larsen stepped down as CEO and co-founded OpenCoin, which developed Ripple.
Ripple enables instant and direct transfer of money between two parties.
In 2013, OpenCoin changed its name to Ripple Labs, with Larsen remaining CEO.
In 2014 Ripple was the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, after Bitcoin.
Larsen stepped down as CEO in November 2016 but still serves as executive chairman.
Larsen is married to Lyna Lam and the couple has two children together.
Lam is the executive director of A Khmer Buddhist Foundation, which is a non-profit aiming to improve the lifestyle and preservation of Khmer people and their culture.
Larsen and his family live on a large estate in The Highlands community in Seattle, Washington.
What is Chris Larsen’s net worth?
Larsen has a 17 per cent stake in Ripple Labs and a personal holding of more than 5 billion XRP.
On paper, in 2018, Larsen was worth $59 billion – mainly thanks to his holding in XRP – making him the fifth richest person on the planet.
In 2022, his holding in XRP is worth around $2.5 billion.
At the start of 2022, Ripple Labs was valued at $15 billion, making his stake also worth around $2.5 billion.
As of 2022, Chris Larsen is believed to have an overall net worth of around $6 billion.