Arthur Britto also known as Arthur Britto II is the Co-Founder and President of PolySign and one of the founders of Ripple. He is also an angel investor and previously worked in videogame design. He has never been interviewed, photographed, or spoken to public forums. Rumors have circulated that he does not exist. But, a former advisor to Ripple confirmed he'd met Britto many times. Ripple's communications team also confirmed Britto's actual name and identity.[1] Later reporting and detailed comments from Ripple CTO David Schwartz have further confirmed that Britto is a real and highly private individual whose ideas helped shape core XRP Ledger mechanics such as its exchange functionality and auto-bridging.[8]
Outside game design and patent work, Britto has been active as an entrepreneur and executive. He served as Chief Executive Officer at Information Access Technologies Inc., one of the first internet service providers. Britto is the founder and president of PolySign, a blockchain infrastructure company, and business records indicate he served as a director of Bitstamp Ltd. from May 2014 to September 2015.[9]
Prior to founding Ripple, Arthur Britto worked in video game design.[2] In 2023, Ripple CTO, David Schwartz shared Arthur Britto's Moby Games profile on Twitter, which included several credits and his IQ.wiki page, confirming they are legitimate sources of information about Britto.[3][2] In 2026, Schwartz gave one of his most detailed public descriptions of Britto in an X Space, calling him a key architect of the XRP Ledger and likening his technical intuition to Mozart’s while emphasizing Britto’s extreme preference for privacy.[8]
From 2006, Britto filed patents to protect 13 inventions. The listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).[4]
He used to run an old Bitcoin exchange called exchangeyourBitcoins.com.
In 2011, as a programmer, Britto began to develop the XRP ledger with David Schwartz and Jed McCaleb.[5] In 2012, he formed Ripple (formerly NewCoin Inc) with Jed McCaleb and Chris Larsen.[5] Britto served in an advisory role at Ripple Labs until April 2019.[1]
Britto joined Twitter in August 2011 but had not tweeted until June 23, 2025. A Ripple's spokesperson explained in 2019 that Britto was an introvert, super private, and had no desire to be a public figure due to personal reasons.[1] Later interviews and reports further stressed that he has attended crypto events anonymously and was upset even by a photograph that showed only the back of his head, illustrating the extent of his desire to avoid publicity.[8]
Arthur Britto ended nearly 14 years of social media silence by publishing a cryptic post on X (formerly Twitter) on June 23, 2025 that consisted of a single "face without mouth" emoji (😶).[7][9] This post sparked widespread speculation in the XRP community, with some users questioning if his account had been hacked.[7] Ripple CTO David Schwartz later publicly confirmed that the post was legitimate and not the result of a hack or compromise of the account.[9] Britto had joined Twitter in August 2011 but had never posted publicly until this date, despite having over 28,000 followers, and coverage described the emoji as his first public communication from the account since it was created.[7][9]
