Nik Bougalis, director of engineering at Ripple (XRP) Labs, announced in a Twitter thread on October 22nd that he will be leaving the company after 10 years.
“good thing…”
my ten year journey in @ Ripple It was great (if you get too exhausted to consume it all).
I had to work towards a goal I believed in and work on a project I loved.
However, the trip will come to an end in a few weeks.
🧵
— 𝙽 𝙸 𝙺 𝙱 (@nbougalis) October 21, 2022
Bougalis said that even though his ten-year stay at Ripple was great, all good things must come to an end.
A cryptographer and software engineer who worked at Samsung before joining Ripple added that his departure in the coming weeks will not affect the XRP ledger.
“And what about #XRPL? Its long-term health and success does not depend on any one person. I am confident it will work.”
He continued that he will not join rival blockchain projects or get involved in DeFi or NFTs. According to him, his plans will be revealed later.
Bougalis’ years of experience at Ripple means he is one of the people who played an integral role in the development of the XRP Ledger.
He recently oversaw the XLS-20 amendment that introduces non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to XRPL. The proposal could come to fruition as early as October 31, as network validators are currently voting on it.
Meanwhile, Ripple Labs is still embroiled in a legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Recently, regulators scored a small victory by turning over former Secretary Hinman’s documents.
XRP has fallen 4.5% over the past seven days, trading at $0.455 at the time of writing.
Top crypto execs keep leaving
Meanwhile, his exit marks another departure of a high-profile figure from the crypto firm. Several cryptocurrency executives and key personnel left their roles this year in light of market conditions.
Among them are Alex Masinsky of Celsius, Brett Harrison of FTX US, Jesse Powell of Kraken, Michael Saylor of MicroStrategy, Gavin Wood of Parity Technologies, Brian Roberts of OpenSea, and Michael Moro of Genesis Trading.
