Ripple lead engineer steps down after decade at the company

Ripple (XRP) Labs’ director of engineering Nik Bougalis has announced that he will leave the company after ten years in an Oct. 22 Twitter thread.

“All good things…”

My decade-long journey at @Ripple has been a fantastic (if exhausting and all-consuming) one.

I got to work on a project that I love, towards a goal I believe in.

But that journey will be coming to an end in a few weeks.

— 𝙽 𝙸 𝙺 𝙱 (@nbougalis) October 21, 2022

Bougalis stated that all good things must end, even if his decade-long stay at Ripple has been fantastic.

The cryptographer and software engineer who worked at Samsung before joining Ripple added that his departure in the coming weeks would not affect the XRP ledger.

“And what of the #XRPL? Its long-term health and success isn’t predicated on any one person. I’m confident that it will be just fine, thanks to talented and passionate individuals who contribute and participate, each in their own way.”

He continued that he would not join a rival blockchain project or get involved in DeFi and NFTs. According to him, his plans would be revealed later.

Bougalis’ long time at Ripple means he is one of those who played an integral in the development of the XRP Ledger.

He recently oversaw the XLS-20 amendment introducing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to XRPL. The proposal could come to life as early as Oct. 31 as the network validators are currently voting on it.

Meanwhile, Ripple Labs is still embroiled in a legal tussle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It recently scored a minor win with the regulator handing over former Director Hinman’s documents.

XRP is down 4.5% in the last seven days and is trading for $0.455 as of press time.

Top crypto execs continue to leave

Meanwhile, his exit marks another departure of high-profile personnel from a crypto company. This year, several top crypto executives and leading personnel have left their roles in light of the market situation.

Some of them include Celsius’ Alex Mashinsky, FTX US’ Brett Harrison, Kraken’s Jesse Powell, MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, Parity Technologies’ Gavin Wood, OpenSea’s Brian Roberts, and Genesis Trading’s Michael Moro.

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