Ripple’s Q3 Report Says Bots Are To Blame For FUD Around XRP Dumping Allegations And Price Manipulation

905
Ripple’s Q3 Report Says Bots Are To Blame For FUD Around XRP Dumping Allegations And Price Manipulation
Advertisement
   

Ripple, the company behind the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has published its Q3 report to inform the crypto community of the performance of XRP during Q3. Besides noting that XRP sales have significantly reduced from Q2 by approximately 74%, the report also explains the root of the FUD that has been surrounding the XRP token.

XRP Sales Decrease Dramatically in Q3

Previously, Ripple was using CoinMarketCap data to calculate XRP sales before announcing a shift to CryptoCompare Top Tier which according to many, is more reliable and provides actual volumes of cryptocurrencies. For Q3 2019, XRP sales totaled to $66.23 million, a drop from $251.51 million in Q2. This represents a 73.7% drop. The report also explained that Ripple had paused programmatic sales midway in Q3 to focus more on over-the-counter sales, strategic partnerships and increasing the liquidity of XRP.

According to the report, XRP’s price decreased by 35.4% in Q3 while the aggregate market capitalization dropped by 30.4%. Also, a total of 3 billion XRP coins were released from the Ripple escrow for Q3 but 2.3 billion were returned. A large portion of the 700 million XRP not returned was put in operating wallets at the end of Q3.

In Q3, the average daily volume of XRP volume dropped from $429.51 in Q2 to $198.10 million, although still higher than Q1’s $156.01 volume. The volatility of XRP’s daily returns in Q3 was 3.6%, which is lower compared to Q2’s 5.0% and also when compared to BTC’s or ETH’s.

Twitter Bots Responsible For FUD Around XRP

The report mentions that research conducted by Indiana University concluded that Twitter bots were responsible for 50% of the FUD around XRP. These bots were responsible for the notable increase in FUD particularly around XRP dumping allegations and flooding of the markets with XRP tokens. The research also learned that bots are responsible for 49% FUD around BTC and 71% around ETH.

Advertisement  

Ripple noted that XRP whales are not any different from bitcoin or Ethereum whales, therefore, the dumping allegations are baseless. 

The report then addresses claims of price manipulation clarifying that the company has an insignificant role in the prices of XRP, noting:

“Ripple cannot control XRP price. XRP is traded on a fully functioning and independent digital asset market, including over 140 exchanges, in which Ripple plays a very limited role. As a stakeholder of XRP, Ripple is an interested party in its success. We are aligned with other XRP stakeholders and focused on supporting a healthy XRP community.”

During an interview with Anthony Pompliano a few days ago, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse explained that 99.9% of all XRP trading, Ripple has nothing to do with it. Furthermore, he opined that a large portion of XRP estimated to be around 80% of the total XRP is returned to escrows. 

Forging Ahead

The report said that the On-Demand Liquidity product has continued to witness a high demand from customers – marking a 75% increase from Q2. Ripple plans to bring on more technical talent in Europe in the future to assist in the further development of this product.

The report also addressed the fact that the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority FCA issued its guidance about the definition of digital assets, stating that XRP and Ethereum are both utility tokens that can also be used to make payments, therefore, XRP cannot be classified as a security.

The concerns about XRP being security have been ongoing for a long time. Moving forward, Ripple states that it will continue to address any misinformation and FUD because such issues hinder the growth of crypto assets:

“These activities underscore the continued maturation of digital asset markets. Ripple will continue to take proactive steps to address misinformation and FUD while being a responsible and transparent stakeholder of XRP.”