Just read something interesting about Ripple's CTO David Schwartz. While his co-founders were raking in billions during XRP's 2018 bull run - Chris Larsen hit $54B, Brad Garlinghouse approached $10B - Schwartz actually chose a different path. Dude took a 2% stake in Ripple plus salary instead of loading up on XRP tokens. Pretty wild move considering how much money was on the table.

So what's David Schwartz net worth actually at? Forbes pegged it around $90M back in 2019, and he mentioned by 2021 it was still well below $170M. Not exactly pocket change, but nowhere near billionaire territory like people were speculating. He's been pretty transparent about it too - acknowledged most of his wealth is tied to volatile assets, which is a double-edged sword. Good returns but also risky AF.

Besides XRP, Schwartz confirmed he holds Bitcoin and some altcoins too. Interesting that even with all the crypto wealth around him, his David Schwartz net worth strategy was way more conservative than his colleagues. Makes you think about the risk vs reward calculations these guys were making back then. Larsen literally gained $6B in a single month at one point lol