Ripple moves to sell 100 million XRP tokens on Sunday, following Iran-Israel conflict escalation news and a cryptocurrency market crash. The prominent, yet controversial, company is XRP‘s largest holder, responsible for recurrent monthly sell-offs that potentially impact the asset’s price.
In April, Ripple unlocked 1 billion XRP as it does on the first day of every month. After that, the company sent 200 million tokens to its Treasury account labeled as ‘Ripple (1)‘ on XRPScan.
However, this month’s expected sell-off took longer than usual to start, which usually occurs in the first seven working days. Moreover, the unusual aspects of this month’s sell-off continue with Ripple’s most recent activity on April 14, Sunday.
In particular, half of the reserves left the ‘Ripple (1)’ account this morning, with an approximate value of $50 million. The 100 million XRP tokens were still idle in the ‘rP4X2…sKxv3‘ by press time. Ripple usually sells its tokens to this unlabeled account, which later deposits the funds to known cryptocurrency exchange addresses.
Ripple (1) account information, transactions. Source: XRPScan
XRP price analysis as Ripple sells its tokens
Historically, the XRP price has fallen when Ripple sells its tokens from the monthly reserves account. Finbold marked each day of Ripple’s selling activity in XRP’s daily price chart year-to-date.
Starting with January 7, 16, and 30, summing up to a 246.34 million XRP dump. February’s selling activity accounted for 240 million tokens on February 5, 11, and 20. Recently, March 5 and 13 saw another 240 million XRP sell-off.
On that note, XRP crashed on six out of eight days that Ripple made a payment. This pattern suggests correlation and a significant impact on the asset. The evidence hints that each time Ripple sells, XRP’s exchange rate may drop.
XRP/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView/Finbold
Therefore, XRP investors now fear the 100 million tokens Ripple just moved could fuel XRP’s poor performance. Geopolitical tensions involving the Iran-Israel conflict have impacted the entire market, also punishing this cryptocurrency, currently trading at $0.485.
The company still holds another 100 million XRP from this month’s unlock that Ripple can sell at any moment in April.