Ripple Sells Millions of XRP at Loss

On October 10, a significant XRP transfer was detected by the crypto tracking service Whale Alert, as approximately 18 hours have elapsed since the transaction took place. In this noteworthy move, a substantial 30,700,000 XRP tokens, valued at $15,315,061 in fiat, were transferred to a wallet associated with the Bitstamp exchange. What makes this transfer particularly intriguing is the revelation of the sender’s identity. Whale Alert’s tweet uncovered that the transaction originated from an anonymous blockchain address, but additional information from another source unveiled the true sender: Ripple Labs.

Bithomp, a platform specializing in XRP data, confirmed that the transaction was initiated by a wallet linked to Ripple Labs, the company behind the XRP cryptocurrency. This impressive chunk of XRP was sent to the Bitstamp exchange at a time when the XRP market was experiencing a downturn. Over the past week, XRP had seen a decline of nearly 8.5%, according to data from CoinMarketCap. This prompts the question of whether Ripple sold the coins at a loss, given the market conditions.

However, there’s another possible explanation for this substantial transfer. Bitstamp is one of Ripple’s key platforms for On-Demand Liquidity (ODL), a service within the RippleNet framework that facilitates swift funds transfer using XRP. Although Ripple has recently rebranded ODL as “Ripple Payments,” the functionality remains the same. Hence, this transfer of 30.7 million XRP to Bitstamp could serve as an infusion of XRP needed to facilitate ODL transfers via the Bitstamp platform in Europe.

Interestingly, this isn’t the first such transfer by Ripple to Bitstamp. On October 9, a similar transaction involving 30,300,000 XRP tokens was executed by Ripple, suggesting a possible strategic move to reinforce their ODL capabilities. These developments underscore the dynamic nature of the cryptocurrency market and the versatility of XRP as both a digital asset and a medium for facilitating cross-border transactions.