The XRP Ledger Foundation has tapped David “JoelKatz” Schwartz — one of the original architects of the XRP Ledger — as an honorary board member, bringing a high-profile technical mind into a formal advisory role as the organization reshapes its leadership.
The move arrives days after the XRPLF unveiled a new operating team aimed at tightening technical stewardship, community engagement and institutional coordination. Executive Director Brett Mollin will lead overall strategy and cross-functional coordination; Denis Angell, a prolific XRPL code contributor, joins from XRPL Labs as chief technology officer to oversee engineering, amendment work and technical standards; Rene Huijsen will run operations after experience at Ripple and work on BIS cross-border interoperability; and Hussein “Vet” Zangana will lead community, communications, validator and developer engagement, events and ecosystem storytelling.
“We’re honored to welcome David Schwartz as an Honorary Board Member of the XRP Ledger Foundation,” the Foundation wrote on X. “As one of the original architects of the XRP Ledger, David brings deep technical insight and a long-term perspective that will help strengthen the Foundation’s technical stewardship of the ecosystem. Welcome, David!”
Schwartz’s appointment grabbed attention across the XRP community not only because of his role in the ledger’s design but also because it follows his exit from full-time work at Ripple. Asked why he left Ripple and whether he’d sold his XRP, Schwartz said the decision was personal: “I left Ripple because I had been working non-stop since the end of 2011 and felt it was time to stop doing this full time,” he wrote. He added that he still holds some XRP but has been “drastically reducing my cryptocurrency holdings since 2013 because I have a psychological aversion to risk.”
Far from stepping away from the ecosystem, Schwartz described a transition from a single-company executive role into a broader advisory and infrastructure-facing presence: “I made a list of all the things I’m doing now, and it’s long,” he wrote. “Board member at Ripple, advising Evernorth, running a large hub, honorary board member at XRPLF, going to XRPL events, and regular meetings with devs.”
The XRPLF framed the leadership shifts as the start of deeper collaboration with ecosystem stakeholders “to advance every area of community and technology — openly, transparently and with the public.” As that coordination takes shape, the Foundation will rely on Schwartz’s long-term technical perspective alongside the new operational team to shepherd engineering decisions, community programs and standards work across the ledger.
At press time, XRP traded at $1.46.
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