Ripple’s Chief Technical Officer (CTO), David Schwartz has revealed how he lost a whopping sum after selling his Ethereum (ETH) holding before the start of the 2017 bull run.

Purposely to put solar panels on his house, the cryptocurrency enthusiasts who co-created the third-most-valuable digital asset, XRP, said he sold his $40,000 worth of Ethereum (ETH) before the beginning of a bull run that would have made the asset worth $40MM.

He said: “I sold all my ETH, $40,000 worth, to put solar panels on my house right before the start of the run that would have made that worth $40mm or so. I felt like an investment genius when I did it, pocketing a decent profit and ending all risk.”

Ripple’s Schwartz Replies Skeptics

Ripple’s trillion-dollar man made this remark while replying to the ‘biggest warning sign’ for XRP enthusiasts, made by a Twitter users who was skeptical of the possibility of XRP’s future progress considering the situation of the digital asset.

The Twitter user under the handler @hlnoooo demanded that XRP holders “get out now” tweeted: “Warning to all XRP holders. Ripple CTO @JoelKatz recently selling his XRP stack is the biggest warning sign one could ever get. This is the most bearish sign for XRP I have ever witnessed since beginning of ’17.”

As par the Twitter user, Schwartz was not the only Ripple team member that sold his XRP holding, the user said other employees of Ripple are doing the same.

Although observers are claiming the Ripple employees are doing this because of uncertainty regarding SEC’s future pronouncement on Ripple’s XRP.

Ripple CTO Still Holds Some XRP

To add to his claim, the Twitter user brought a tweet by Schwartz that pointed to the CTO’s ‘de-risking strategy’ embarked upon with support from his wife.

“I hold some XRP that I bought on the open market over the years as well as other similar assets. When I first chose to put money in, I agreed on a de-risking strategy with my wife should we ever have too much at risk, which I’ve been following with some sadness.”

In his clarification, Schwartz said the action was part of the ‘de-risking strategy’ he embarked on with his wife.

He maintained: “What helped me not to be so sad selling during the bull run was thinking how happy I’d be if I regretted my decision, but it still hurt.”

According to Schwartz, most of his “illiquid assets was still Ripple stock.” The programmer said he’s still in the game no matter what. Schwartz finalized that all his “eggs are in one basket”, he’s happy with it.