XRP Price Crashes By 8% After Flare Network Airdrops Free Crypto

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.

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.

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.