Banking heir Matthew Mellon died with $193 million in XRP, the keys hidden under other people's names, and a deal that let his estate sell only a little each day

Matthew Mellon came from the Mellon and Drexel banking families. His first wife was Tamara Mellon, co-founder of Jimmy Choo; they married at Blenheim Palace in 1999. In late 2017 he put $2 million into the cryptocurrency XRP. Forbes reported it was once worth nearly $1 billion. On 16 April 2018, the day he was due to enter a rehab clinic, he was found dead in a Cancún hotel room, aged 54. He kept the private keys offline, on memory cards registered under other people's names and stored around the United States. The XRP was not in a trust, so it went through probate. The estate was valued at $197 million, of which $193 million was XRP. His will was out of date and did not mention XRP. It left his oldest daughter a $100,000 Andy Warhol and the Mellon family silver. A contract Mellon had signed with Ripple limited how much the estate could sell each day. Lawyers won a slightly higher limit but could not sell in bulk. Everyone shown the deal signed a non-disclosure agreement. By the end of 2019 XRP was at 19 cents and the estate had lost more than half its value. It paid $60 million in federal estate tax in late 2020, and $282,500 to settle a former housekeeper's harassment suit. It settled its debts in January 2021. His three children were his heirs.