In brief
- Programmatic sales—sales to crypto exchanges—were once the biggest source of sales of XRP but Ripple halted these sales last year.
- Sales of XRP have dropped from $13.08 million in Q4 2019 to $1.75 million in Q1 2020, a market report released yesterday reveals.
- Global trading volumes of XRP now stand at $29.68 billion, having increased by 72% from $17.24 billion in Q4 2019.
Ripple has released its Q1 markets report, and the state of XRP is, er, mixed.
This year has seen Ripple’s XRP continue to be the worst-performing altcoin among the top 10 by market cap following a dreadful 2019. Its community started to abandon the project—fed up with the company’s “token dumps.”
But Ripple now seems to have taken control of its sales in a bid to restore faith in its XRP cryptocurrency.
In its report released yesterday, the fintech firm revealed it had its lowest ever XRP sales in the first quarter of this year—dropping from $13.08 million in Q4 2019 to $1.75 million worth of XRP in Q1 2020.
This drop in sales comes as the company halts XRP sales to crypto exchanges. Sales to exchanges—known as programmatic sales—have been paused since Q2 2019. They once accounted for the majority of Ripple's sales volumes, but these “token dumps” were a point of contention in the Ripple community because it purportedly affected price performance.
The report also stated that Ripple has been focusing on over-the-counter (OTC) channel for XRP sales “in strategic regions including EMEA [Europe, the Middle East and Africa] and Asia."
Meanwhile, global trading volumes of XRP have increased by 72% in Q1 2020 to $29.68 billion. They stood at $17.24 billion in Q4 2019.
It noted that its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) payment network transactions tripled in transaction volume. “Customers continue to see the value of XRP through significant cost-savings by eliminating the need to pre-fund international accounts,” the report said, adding that “the dollar value transacted increased by more than 294%.”
XRP sales have long been controversial among traders. Fake volumes of XRP have been a problem in the past, according to crypto analytics firm Messari, and XRP investors have been very vocal on social media about Ripple’s sales to exchanges negatively affecting the price of XRP.
But Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has argued that Ripple would not be profitable or cash flow positive without selling XRP, according to the Financial Times, indicating that its XRP sales were helping to finance the business.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.