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

XRP's price fell by 8% today, just hours after the Flare Network worked out which addresses it shall credit with free Spark tokens.

2 min read

Dec 12, 2020

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.

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

Get crypto news straight to your inbox--

sign up for the Decrypt Daily below. (It’s free).

Get Email!

Apple Admits to Security Vulnerability That Leaves Crypto Users Exposed—Here's What You Should Do

Apple confirmed Monday its devices were left vulnerable to an exploit that allowed for remote malicious code execution through web-based JavaScript, opening up an attack vector that could have part unsuspecting victims from their crypto. According to a recent Apple security disclosure, users must use the latest versions of its JavaScriptCore and WebKit software to patch the vulnerability. The bug, discovered by researchers at Google's threat analysis group, allows for “processing maliciously cr...

Solana Hits All-Time High Price Two Years After FTX Nearly Sent It to Zero

After three long years, Solana (SOL) has finally broken its all-time high price record, setting a new milestone above $260 on Thursday. Solana rose above the previous $260 record mark early Thursday afternoon, per data from Coinbase, continuing the asset's recent hot streak following the U.S. presidential election win of crypto candidate Donald Trump earlier this month. The jump also came following word that Gary Gensler, the SEC Chairman who led the regulator's crypto industry crackdown, will r...

MicroStrategy Stock Sinks 16% as Bitcoin Nears $100K—Is It Too Hot to Handle?

MicroStrategy shares fell 16% to $397.28 Thursday, following statements from influential investment firm Citron Research that it placed a short position against the company while maintaining a long position in Bitcoin. The disclosure reveals mounting concerns about the company’s stock being overvalued due to what some perceive as an overly excessive company valuation. Citron Research claimed Bitcoin investing has been "easier than ever," citing ETFs and stocks available on trading platforms Coin...

News

Courses

Deep Dives

Coins

Videos