Ripple reserved 200 million XRP ($112 million) for its treasury following January’s 1 billion tokens unlock. On January 7, the company first moved to sell half of this month’s supply inflation, according to onchain data.
Notably, the sell-off followed a similar pattern to movements observed in the last year. It started with a transaction worth $56 million in 100 million XRP tokens.
‘Ripple (1)’, Ripple’s treasury known account, sent the tokens to ‘rP4X2…sKxv3’. Further, ‘rp4X2’ kept 82.3 million XRP and sent 17.70 million to ‘rhWt2…E32hk’. The former still has a balance worth more than $52 million USD.
In the sequence, ‘rhWt2’ forwarded the 17.7 million XRP to ‘r4wf7…h4Rzn’. This last address was previously used as an intermediary distribution account to centralized exchanges’ accounts — a pattern repeated again in this recent sell-off event.
Ripple moves 100 million in a possible sell-off. Source: Finbold
Over 45 million XRP was deposited to exchanges by January 9
On January 8, ‘r4wf7’ deposited a total of 45.72 million XRP to four known exchange addresses. Bitstamp received 26.60 million, Bitso 12.10 million, Independent Reserves 1.4 million, and BTC Markets 5.3 million. Interestingly, an unknown address received 320,000 tokens.
Essentially, this intermediary address also received 28.02 million XRP from ‘r4H6G…QXNMT’ before the routed 17.7 million from Ripple.
In the meantime, there is still 100 million liquid XRP in Ripple’s treasury, plus the 82.3 million already circulating. These tokens could become selling pressure in the markets at any moment, impacting XRP’s price.
It is important to understand that Ripple usually liquidates their holdings in strategic moments. Essentially, the sell-offs represent a relevant weight of the token’s 24-hour trading volume, capable of influencing short-term price action.
In particular, the current week is a key moment for the cryptocurrency market, with investors expecting the SEC’s decision on the Bitcoin spot ETF, bringing extra volatility, risks, and opportunities for whales like Ripple.
Disclaimer: The content on this site should not be considered investment advice. Investing is speculative. When investing, your capital is at risk.
Source: https://finbold.com/ripple-sells-100-million-xrp-this-week-as-bitcoin-etf-decision-looms/