Ripple concludes Q1 with record low XRP sales
- Ripple's XRP sales reached record lows, dropping by 87% in Q1 2020 when compared to Q4 2019.
- The reason behind the low sales is the pause of programmatic sales, such as those made to exchanges.
- The company ceased such sales due to accusations of faking volumes, but the volumes are still quite high.
The year 2020 definitely did not bring the best financial situation for anyone, including cryptos. The price crash in mid-March damaged countless projects, that are still recovering today. But even before that, some crypto projects struggled more than usual.
XRP sales 87% lower than in late 2019
Copy link to sectionRipple, for example, saw a massive drop in sales in the first quarter of this year. The drop sits at 87% according to the company’s recent announcement.
The company revealed that it sold only $1.75 million in XRP coins in Q1. In comparison, Q4 of last year saw the sale of $13.08-worth of XRP. The drop in sales is pretty severe, but it comes for a few different reasons.
One such reason is a drop in direct institutional sales. Not to mention the prolonged pause in the company’s programmatic sales, such as sales of coins to crypto exchanges.
Instead, Ripple started focusing a lot more on OTC channel for its XRP sales in specific regions. The company targeted Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
XRP price and volume persist, despite low sales
Copy link to sectionHowever, people still continue to buy XRP, and even though its sales dropped sharply, the price did not. They still dropped, although only slightly, and the drop was certainly disproportionate to a drop in sales. Meanwhile, XRP trading skyrocketed by 72% in Q1 of this year, when compared to the last quarter of 2019.
To Ripple, this indicates that “Customers continue to see the value of XRP through significant cost-savings by eliminating the need to pre-fund international accounts.“
Even so, Ripple’s drop in sales became quite noticeable quite a while ago, In fact, the company stopped its programmatic sales in Q3 last year, which already led to the 80%-large decline between Q3 and Q4.
The company’s reason for halting these sales were accusations of faking volume reports. Before the firm stopped, the majority of its volume came from such sales, and it suffered accusations of inflated volumes.
Ripple then decided to prove such accusations false. “Ripple continues to evaluate its benchmarks given challenges, such as fake volume, that continue to persist in the industry.“
