Ripple Sold $336M Worth of XRP Tokens in Q1; Reports Strong XRPL Growth
Blockchain company Ripple has reported selling over $361 million worth of XRP tokens in Q1 of 2021. This is an increase from the previous quarter's sales of $226.31 million. The sales were related to Ripple's on-demand liquidity product, which allows customers to move money globally without the need for correspondent banking relationships. Ripple has also reported strong on-chain activity, with decentralized exchange volumes increasing 34% from the previous quarter. The company has sourced XRP from the open market to ensure sufficient supply is available for its growing ODL business.
XRP Ledger Saw 114K+ New Wallets, 116M+ Transactions and 140K+ XRP Burned in Q1 2023
The XRP Ledger (XRPL) saw growth in Q1 2023, despite market uncertainty and the ongoing Ripple vs. SEC case. The network processed over 116 million transactions and burned over 140K XRP from transaction fees, representing a 38% surge in burned XRP compared to the previous quarter. The increase in network activity was attributed to the contribution of NFTs on the XRPL. Although the growth rate of new wallets declined by 38.3% compared to Q4 2022, the XRPL is headed for the 5 million wallet threshold, currently boasting an excess of 4.6 million wallets.
XRP Faces Last Line of Defense Against a Drop to $0.40
The occasional market-wide declines have erased some of the gains picked up by XRP during its solo March rally. The asset has dropped by over 20% since the local top of $0.5850 observed on March 29. Following these intermittent declines, XRP is currently at its line of defense against a dip to the $0.40 territory.
Ripple CTO Outlines Three Reasons Not To Hold XRP in Automated Market Maker (AMM)
Ripple's XRP Ledger automated market maker (AMM) is set to go live for end-users, providing XRP holders an extra avenue to earn rewards by providing liquidity to the available pools. The AMM network uses mathematical algorithms to price crypto assets and make it easy for traders to buy and sell them. Ripple CTO David Schwartz expressed his excitement about the feature, but noted that he will only use a portion of his XRP holdings in the XRPL AMM network. He cited three reasons not to hold XRP in an AMM, including the risk of an implementation bug, exposure to other assets, and the potential for missed gains if XRP's price increases rapidly.
11M+ XRP Burned so Far, As XRP Remains Deflationary
Since its launch, the XRP Ledger (XRPL) has burned over 11 million XRP tokens in an effort to tackle spam transactions, but opinions are divided on how effective these burns are in boosting XRP's value. The burn rate is erratic and the network is engineered to decrease the amount of XRP burned as the asset's value increases. While some argue that XRP burns may support the asset's price, others believe that XRP's utility is a major factor driving its price action. Furthermore, official documentation available on the XRP Ledger website states that at the current burn rate, it would take a minimum of 70,000 years to destroy all existing XRP tokens, making XRP "slightly deflationary."
Date Announced for Public Hearing on Lawsuit Claiming XRP is a Security
A hearing on class certification in the Zakinov v. Ripple case is scheduled for later today. The plaintiff in the case seeks to certify a class of all XRP holders who purchased, sold, and hold the cryptocurrency at a loss. The hearing will be held in California’s federal court and is for oral arguments on the question of certifying the class of XRP holders suing Ripple. The Judge has given online access to only 500 members of the public to join the proceedings.
