- Dave Portnoy sold his XRP holdings at $2.40, just before a 60% price rally pushed it to $3.64.
- He blames the decision on advice warning of Ripple’s competition with Circle.
- Portnoy called himself the “leader of the XRP army” but now says missing out on millions makes him want to cry.
Dave Portnoy, the loud-and-proud face behind Barstool Sports, is not having the best week. And it’s all because of one move he now seriously regrets: selling his XRP bag just a bit too early. Like… millions-of-dollars too early.
In a raw, slightly exasperated video posted to X on July 17, Portnoy spilled the tea. “I sold all my XRP at $2.40,” he said, adding that he bailed on the trade because someone who originally hyped it up to him warned that Circle—yeah, the stablecoin company—was about to crush Ripple. So, he listened. He sold. And then… XRP went vertical.
The coin pumped 60% since he dumped it. “I would’ve made millions,” Portnoy said in the video, clearly fuming. “And I want to cry. I don’t own it anymore. Even though I was like the leader of the XRP army… I sold it.”
To make it even worse, XRP hit $3.64 just before he hit publish on the post. Brutal timing. Just absolute pain.
Both Ripple and Circle had applied for U.S. banking licenses a couple weeks ago, which fueled speculation, rivalry chatter, and apparently, Portnoy’s exit strategy. Probably not the news he should’ve acted on… in hindsight.
This isn’t Dave’s first crypto sob story, either. Back in 2021, he rage-quit Bitcoin during a dip, only to watch it rocket past $123K this month. Call it a curse, bad timing, or just typical trading whiplash—but Portnoy’s crypto plays are giving Greek tragedies a run for their money.
At the time of writing, XRP was still riding high at around $3.36—just 12% shy of its all-time high from way back in January 2018. For Portnoy though? That difference is less about numbers and more about what could’ve been.
