Ripple just unlocked one billion XRP from escrow, worth about $226 million. The move was tracked by cryptocurrency whale watchers and once again raises questions on how much XRP the San Francisco-based startup is selling on a monthly basis.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 500,000,000 #XRP (115,933,402 USD) unlocked from escrow at Ripple Escrow wallet
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) March 1, 2020
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 500,000,000 #XRP (115,933,402 USD) unlocked from escrow at Ripple Escrow wallet
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) March 1, 2020
Ripple owns more than half of the total supply of XRP and has slowed its sales of the digital asset to third parties in recent months.
A Ripple-owned wallet used exclusively for selling its holdings to institutions over-the-counter, however, has remained highly active in the month of February, sending 75,202,210 XRP worth $17 million to wallets of unknown origin. The exact amount Ripple has sold will be revealed when the company releases its Q1 recap on its movements of the crypto asset.
The latest numbers released by Ripple show the company sold $13.08 million worth of XRP in the fourth quarter of last year. That’s a dramatic dip from previous quarters. Ripple sold a total of $66.24 million in XRP in the third quarter of last year, $251.51 million in the second quarter and $169.42 million in the first quarter.
In addition, Ripple says it paused “programmatic” sales of XRP on cryptocurrency exchanges in the third and fourth quarters of last year. However, it has not revealed its sales schedule for 2020.
“…Ripple continued the pause of programmatic sales, focusing solely on our over-the-counter (OTC) sales with a few strategic partners, who are building XRP utility and liquidity in strategic regions including EMEA and Asia.”
