The price of XRP has fallen over 14 per cent in a 24 hour period following a week of highs, with reports suggesting the a Ripple co-founder is selling his tokens.
XRP Drops to $0.44
Last week was a good one for XRP. On Friday, the third-most valuable altcoin reached a high of $0.70, according to CoinMarketCap. This is compared to $0.28 on the 17 September. Such was the rise of it that at one point XRP even surpassed Ethereum to take second place in terms of market cap. However, it wasn’t long before Ethereum rectified the situation by putting XRP back into third.
The last time it achieved this was briefly last December when it rose nearly 43 per cent in value.
One of the main indicators to the altcoin’s price rise was down to the announcement from Ripple Labs Inc., the startup associated with XRP, that its xRapid product may go live in the “next month or so.” Yet, while the crypto asset has enjoyed a renewed surge in value, at the time of publishing it is down 14.55 per cent, according to CoinMarketCap. At the moment, it’s valued at $0.44.
According to the Wall Street Journal, this may be down to a selloff by Jed McCaleb, one of the co-founders of Ripple.
It states that McCaleb, who left Ripple in 2013 and has been the co-founder of rival Stellar since 2014, might be putting pressure on XRP’s price with the sale of its tokens. Understandably, this could produce a negative impact on a token’s value. However, in an email, McCaleb is reported to have said:
“I’m not selling more than I have agreed to with Ripple.”
Agreed Sale
It’s unlikely that McCaleb is ramping up the sale of his tokens due to the fact that he is under an agreement with Ripple.
In 2016, a final agreement was announced by the blockchain startup. In it it stated that a 2014 agreement “dictated timetables and limits within which Jed could sell XRP.” The agreement was to ensure that the distribution of his tokens was “constructive for the Ripple ecosystem.”
However, McCaleb is alleged to have violated his 2014 agreement, which resulted in the new 2016 agreement. In this, it makes note of the fact that the former Ripple co-founder was required to donated two billion XRP to a charitable donor-advised fund (“DAF”) of his choice.
Additionally, his remaining XRP, which the agreement listed at 5.3 billion at the time, was placed in a custody account at Ripple.
“While Jed retains full title and ownership of his remaining XRP, Ripple will control the release of his XRP in a manner consistent with the settlement agreement,” it reads.
It then lists the percentage of XRP McCaleb and the DAF can sell each year the agreement is in place. So while it’s easy to say McCaleb is behind the drop altcoin, it’s more likely to do with the fact that market prices are readjusting with investors taking a profit from the price spike.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
