The price of XRP, the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has crashed following a huge airdrop that will credit all XRP holders who hold funds in participating exchanges and wallets with free cryptocurrency. 

While all of the top ten coins by market capitalization are up—Bitcoin is up by 3.2% in the past 24 hours, Ethereum is up by 2% and Litecoin is up by 4.4%—XRP is down by 8% in the past 24 hours. Its current price is $0.5.

XRP
XRP
+32.15%$2.862
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Created with Highcharts 10.3.3Jun 16Jun 18Jun 20Jun 22Jun 24Jun 26Jun 28Jun 30Jul 2Jul 4Jul 6Jul 8Jul 10Jul 12Jul 14$1.75$2$2.25$2.5$2.75$3$3.25
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As the clock struck midnight, Flare Network, a yet-unreleased blockchain that shall help smart contracts deal with XRP in a trustless manner took a snapshot of the entire XRP blockchain and jotted down the addresses that held XRP in participating exchanges, such as Coinbase, Binance and Kraken, or in eligible wallets, including Ballet and Ledger.

It's giving season. Image: Shutterstock

Coinbase to Support Airdrop That Gives All XRP Holders Free Crypto

Last week, Flare Network, the company that next week will issue all XRP holders with an equivalent amount of Spark tokens, said that Coinbase was “likely too late” to let its customers participate in its airdrop. Near radio-silence, it said, for the company that holds billions of dollars worth of customers’ XRP.  @coinbase has barely engaged with #Flare. They hold about 3 Bn of YOUR #XRP. It is likely too late for them to do the work to support the Spark $FLR distribution at this point. — Flare...

NewsBusiness
2 min read
Decrypt Staff

In the coming months, Flare Network will distribute free Spark (FLR) tokens to all eligible XRP holders. These Spark tokens may well, of course, be worthless when the Flare Network launches next year.

It could have been the case that some people held onto their XRP purely to benefit from the airdrop, then sold as soon as Flare Network took its snapshot. Indeed, the number of XRP whales hit an all-time high in the weeks leading up to the airdrop. A dump could have caused the price of XRP to drop. 

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.

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