Ripple’s monthly movement of one billion XRP is underway.
The San Francisco payments startup has unlocked the XRP, worth about $390 million, from escrow. This makes the funds available for the company to sell to crypto exchanges and institutional participants.
Ripple typically sells a relatively small portion of the XRP that’s unlocked and returns the rest back into escrow at the end of the month. According to the company’s last report, Ripple sold $169.42 million worth of XRP in January, February and March.
But this month may be different. On June 3rd, the company said its sales of XRP will be considerably lower in the second quarter of this year in light of report from Bitwise, which concluded about 95% of the volume reported on the crypto price tracker CoinMarketCap is fake.
“We are evaluating our approach to XRP volume reporting, including reviewing new options and requirements for sourcing market data…
In the short term, this means Ripple’s sales of XRP in Q2 2019 will be substantively lower (as a percentage of reported volume) than in the previous quarter – with our stated target of 20bps for programmatic sales of XRP volume, as reported by CoinMarketCap, likely dropping to less than 10bps. Longer term, by being more demanding about our expected standards for market structure and reporting, we hope to begin raising the bar industry-wide.”
The company did not reveal whether the change will continue into the third quarter of the year.
Ripple joins a chorus of industry leaders and innovators who are addressing accusations of fake volumes and who are pointing to trust and integrity as key challenges for the cryptosphere.
“We hope others in the crypto ecosystem will follow our lead, and ultimately, that our joint efforts will fuel a growing level of trust, among institutions and consumers alike, and the entire digital asset market will thrive. Until we do this, we cannot expect to see widespread adoption of digital assets or blockchain technology.”
Ripple owns more than half of the total supply of XRP, with the majority locked in escrow.
Since 2016, Ripple has sold a total of $890 million in XRP – 34.4% to crypto exchanges and 65.6% to institutions, reports The Block.
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