Ripple CTO David Schwartz, known as much for his massive XRPL contributions as for his viral internet moments regarding XRP and crypto, recently provided another such moment. Many probably did not understood his latest post featuring solar panels, but this one has deep lore directly tied to crypto.
“Post a pic only your fandom would understand” was the challenge Schwartz attached a confusing photo to, and for those not familiar, this connects to what he spent 40,000 ETH on. Those Ethereum coins were bought at the ICO of the biggest altcoin back in 2015 for $0.311 each.
Later, when the price of ETH soared by 321.5% to $1, he sold the whole stash and used the proceeds to buy solar panels.
https://t.co/bgda64sYKL pic.twitter.com/ZCu17OsGK1
— David ‘JoelKatz’ Schwartz (@JoelKatz) October 7, 2025
Some will say a win is a win, and making a 321.5% return on investment is definitely almost an achievement. But had Schwartz not sold his Ethereum holdings, his profit would be an insane 1,521,498%, and the bag itself would now be equal to a whopping $188,000,000.
“What if…?”
For perspective, this would put him among the single most successful ICO investors of all time, a story crypto forums and Twitter users often bring up as one of the legendary “what if” scenarios.
Still, history does not tolerate the subjunctive mood, and who knows, maybe if Schwartz had held, Ethereum itself would not have reached such heights. Adding to that, the money was well spent on what was necessary, turning his profits into something practical and sustainable.
Elon Musk, for example, whose Tesla is a well-known solar panels producer, would approve such an allocation of funds.
