Edoardo Farina, founder of Alpha Lions Academy and well-known XRP advocate, has issued a stark warning to XRP holders, urging them to consider the consequences of trusting centralized exchanges with their digital assets.
In a recent post on X, Farina revisited the infamous 2014 collapse of Mt. Gox, one of the most catastrophic events in cryptocurrency history, as a cautionary example for modern investors.
Study Mt. Gox (BTC Collapse in 2014).
An inside job in which 850,000 BTC were “lost”. Customers didn’t get back their Crypto.
They got USD equivalents based on Bitcoin’s price at the time of the collapse, around $400.
BTC exploded to $20,000+, and Mt. Gox trustees held…
— EDO FARINA 🅧 XRP (@edward_farina) April 27, 2025
According to Farina, the loss of approximately 850,000 Bitcoins during the Mt. Gox debacle remains a critical lesson in the risks of third-party custodianship. Many users at the time were left with little recourse after the exchange abruptly halted operations, citing vague technical issues. Farina argued that the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the funds pointed to internal foul play rather than an honest mistake.
Those who failed to secure their Bitcoin outside of Mt. Gox lost access to their holdings and missed the immense growth that followed. When the exchange went offline, Bitcoin was trading around $400. The asset recently crossed $110,000, and some investors are yet to recover all their assets.
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Partial Recovery and Long-Term Impact
The platform’s trustees maintained possession of a significant portion of the recovered assets, delaying repayment for years. Although some progress has been made through a civil rehabilitation process, Farina noted that the damage had already been done. By mid-2024, the trustees had returned over 140,000 BTC and additional assets to creditors.
However, the vast majority of users only regained a small portion of what they originally lost. Many were compensated in fiat currency, calculated using Bitcoin’s value at the time of the collapse. Others received partial repayments in digital currency, including Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.
Estimates suggest that users recovered roughly 15% of their original holdings. For affected individuals, this meant that for every 100 BTC lost, they might have received only 15 BTC, significantly undercutting potential long-term gains, particularly considering Bitcoin’s price at the time of distribution in 2024 had risen to around $63,000.
The Lesson for XRP Investors
Farina connected the lessons of Mt. Gox directly to today’s XRP investors, stressing the importance of self-custody in an increasingly volatile exchange landscape. Farina recently advised XRP holders to transfer their assets to cold wallets, and high-profile failures like the 2022 collapse of FTX and the earlier demise of QuadrigaCX reinforce this stance.
Self-custody solutions such as the Xaman wallet (formerly Xumm) are good options for software-based storage, and a har
dware wallet like Ledger that keeps private keys offline can eliminate the risk of third-party compromise.
More News;
Major Reasons Why Bitcoin (BTC) Crashes Below $40,000
Ripple Expects Surge in Adoption of XRP by U.S. Banks
Ripple and Bitfinex CTOs Explain 25 Billion XRP Exploit Attempt
Disclaimer: This content is meant to inform and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author’s personal opinions and do not represent Times Tabloid’s opinion. Readers are urged to do in-depth research before making any investment decisions. Any action taken by the reader is strictly at their own risk. Times Tabloid is not responsible for any financial losses.
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