Ripple Has Sold Over $250 Million in XRP in Q2 of 2019
- Ripple’s new quarterly market report has revealed a 48% quarterly increase in XRP sold.
- The report also shows that the company released 3 billion out of its escrow, but reinvested 2.1 billion back in new escrow contracts.
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Ripple, the company behind the third largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has revealed that their Q2 XRP sales have increased by approximately 48% since last quarter, the company announced in its Q2 report on July 24.
According to the announcement, Ripple was able to sell approximately $251 million in XRP in this quarter, which is significantly more than the $169 million it sold during Q1 2019 and the $129.03 million in Q4 last year. The company was able to sell $106.87 million through direct institutional sales, while programmatic sales accounted for $144.65 million.
The report also stated that Ripple is planing a more conservative approach to sales for Q3, with it planing to pull back from some exchange markets, and focus on where liquidity is needed the most. The report also noted that in early Q2 the company paused programmatic sales and placed limits on institutional sales, because of purportedly inflated trading volumes. In order to combat previously inflated statistics, the company has changed its benchmark for trading volumes, and is now working with data and indices firm CryptoCompare.
The report also included an overview of Ripple’s escrow activity for the quarter, with the company releasing 1 billion XRP each month out of the escrow, for a total of 3 billion. Reportedly, 2.1 billion were reinvested back into new escrow contracts, while the other 900 million went to develop projects for Ripple’s Xpring incubator and for its RippleNet partnership with MoneyGram.
As previously reported, Ripple was among the first crypto-related companies to invest in a leading American publicly listed company, by pledging to invest up to $50 million in MoneyGram. It’s Xpring incubator also recently announced that it has invested around $500 million on over 20 XRP projects and companies in the past year.
- A federal judge ruled that the sale of XRP through exchanges and algorithms did not qualify as selling securities, which could have a major impact on several SEC lawsuits.
- The institutional sale of the token, however, did violate federal securities laws, and the lawsuit between the SEC and Ripple will have to go to trial.
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- These documents are seen as central in Ripple’s battle against the SEC, which in 2020 accused the company of selling its XRP token without registering it as a security.
- The documents in question are internal emails, text messages, and expert reports that followed Hinman’s 2018 speech, in which he said ETH and BTC were not securities.
- The exchange argues that the SEC failed to provide a “fair notice” that selling XRP was illegal, and that it previously made public statements that those transactions were lawful.
- Coinbase also pointed out that the SEC is yet to provide clear guidance to crypto businesses, and that it keeps being inconsistent about its enforcement approach.