Ripple just transferred 100,000,000 XRP to a wallet belonging to co-founder Jed McCaleb.
Whale Alert tracked Saturday’s transaction, which was worth $26.3 million at the time of transfer.
McCaleb served as Ripple’s chief technical officer before leaving in 2013 and launching Stellar the following year. However, he still holds a large personal trove of XRP — a portfolio that was reportedly worth $20 billion during XRP’s peak in early 2018.
The former CTO has been vocal about his intention to sell off all of his XRP holdings, though he entered into an agreement with Ripple in 2014 to stagger his sales to prevent tanking the cryptocurrency’s value.
The following year, however, Ripple alleged that McCaleb had violated that agreement. In early 2016, Monica Long, Ripple’s senior vice president of marketing, announced a follow-up agreement designed to give the company the ability to prevent a massive sell-off.
Said Long,
“Jed will donate 2 billion XRP to a charitable donor-advised fund (‘DAF’) of his choice. The same limits are placed on the ability of the charity to sell the XRP as are placed on the Jed’s ability [sic] to sell his remaining XRP.
All of Jed and his children’s remaining XRP, approximately 5.3 billion XRP, will be placed in a custody account at Ripple. While Jed retains full title and ownership of his remaining XRP, Ripple will control the release of his XRP in a manner consistent with the settlement agreement. Specifically, Jed will be allowed to sell his remaining XRP in the following manner:
– for the first year of the agreement Jed and the DAF will be able to collectively sell 0.5 percent of the Average Daily Volume of XRP for each day of the week, including weekends and holidays.
– for the second and third years of this agreement, Jed and the DAF will be able to collectively sell for each day of the week 0.75 percent of the Average Daily Volume.
– for the fourth year of the agreement, Jed and the DAF will be able to collectively sell for each day of the week 1.0 percent of the Average Daily Volume.
– for any time after the fourth year of the agreement, for each day of the week Jed and the DAF will be able to sell 1.5 percent of the Average Daily Volume.”
CoinMetrics has reported that McCaleb is now selling off 500,000 XRP worth roughly $129,000 per day, and the new transfer triggered a fresh round of debate on Ripple’s involvement with the digital asset.
Ripple itself owns more than half of the total supply of XRP and says it sells portions of its holdings to operate the company and fund blockchain and crypto-based projects. It sold $251.51 million in XRP during the second quarter of this year and $169.42 million in the first quarter.
The fintech company, however, has been criticized by certain vocal elements of crypto Twitter for its sales of XRP in recent weeks. A month ago, an XRP investor launched a petition urging the company to stop selling its holdings. It now has more than 3,500 signatures.
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