Ripple Release Report Showing They Sold $535 Million Worth of XRP in 2018
- Ripple have released their report for the fourth quarter of 2018, claiming impressive sales of their cryptocurrency despite the bearish market conditions.
- The company managed to sell 129.03 million dollars worth of XRP in Q4, adding up to a total of $535.56 for 2018.
Ripple have released their report for the fourth quarter of 2018, claiming impressive sales of their cryptocurrency despite the bearish market conditions.
The company managed to sell 129.03 million dollars worth of XRP in Q4, adding up to a total of $535.56 for 2018.
The report was met with criticism due to the company’s decision to take massive profits while recent buyers are losing money due to price drops. However many have pointed out that $171.71 million worth of XRP being directly sold to institutions is anything but bearish news. Institutional support is a hot topic in 2019, and it does appear that Ripple has a head start.
In addition, Q4 sales were only 0.24% of the total trading volume of the cryptocurrency, and many of its proponents have taken the opportunity to point out that the high numbers are a mark of success.
Ripple have also claimed that Q4 has seen the average XRP volatility drop down to five percent – its lowest value since 2016. Considering Ripple’s ambitions to replace traditional money transfers, low volatility is another mark of success and maturity.
The announcement was released around the time analytics and research company Messari reported that the market cap of the cryptocurrency might be overstated by $6.1 billion dollars – which is almost half its current market capitalisation.
Their research shows that circulating supply figures might include billions of XRP that are either not tradable due to court decisions, set aside for donations that are not yet committed or held by the company’s money services – and as such – restricted by law from being resold.
And while including illiquid assets might be a major factor in XRP claiming the #2 spot in terms of market cap, pushing Ethereum to #3, these factors were also in place when Ethereum was sitting comfortably in second place. So despite the difficulty in determining an exact market cap for XRP, few would object the notion that both the company and the currency have made solid progress throughout 2018.
- 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.