Ripple dramatically reduced the amount of XRP it sold in the fourth quarter of 2019.
The company’s latest XRP Markets Report shows the San Francisco startup stopped its sales of the digital asset on cryptocurrency exchanges altogether. The company typically sells XRP on exchanges “programmatically” at a rate of 10 basis points of the overall XRP daily volume.
Meanwhile, Ripple sold $13.08 million worth of XRP to institutions over-the-counter – down from $50.12 million in Q3.
Ripple owns more than half of the total supply of XRP and typically sells portions of its assets on crypto exchanges and to institutions each month.
The company faced increasing heat from crypto investors last year who blamed the company for XRP’s lackluster performance. Ripple says its sales of XRP are too small to impact the price of the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
Ripple says it sells XRP to help fund its business and to invest in blockchain and crypto startups through its fundraising and development arm, Xpring. The company raised $200 million last month in a Series C funding round led by Tetragon, with participation from SBI Holdings and Route 66 Ventures.