It is no longer news that Ripple sells massive amounts of XRP periodically and holds 60% of the total XRP supply. The cryptocurrency community has accused the company of selling millions of XRP to enrich themselves and in turn, keeping the price of the token low. The Ripple team doesn’t seem to agree with this position.
The CTO of Ripple, David Schwartz in a recent tweet said Ripple has never depended on the sale of XRP to run the company. He added that VC and Angel were responsible for the funding used to build the network and it only started selling XRP at a lower price than is obtainable in the market after XRP already had a price. In fact, Schwartz says the sale of XRP is not to raise funds to “do things”.
XRP’s price performance in 2019 has been quite poor and the community has blamed this on the periodic “dumps” by Ripple. This led to a petition against dumping XRP by the company so that the price can be allowed to go higher.
The petition hasn’t had a tangible effect as the third-largest cryptocurrency is currently trading at $0.19, a significant drop from the $0.3 critical level where it has been for most of the year.
eToro senior analyst Mati Greenspan in a tweet has also blamed the selling pressure from Ripple for the poor performance of XRP in 2019. Although there is also a problem with adoption, he admits that the massive sale which is common with Ripple has contributed to its price stagnation.
Ripple may not be selling XRP to raise money as Schwartz claims, but it definitely has a negative impact on the price of the asset. The question is, does XRP have a more radiant future? Mati Greenspan believes so, but it may take a long time unless the issue of massive sale by Ripple is dealt with. With the CTO defending this pattern, is it likely that Ripple will stop it anytime soon?
