Grayscale allegedly dumps massive stakes in XRP, XLM. A substantial portion of its XRP and XLM shares have recently been dumped by Grayscale Investments, the world’s largest digital asset manager.
Data from Bybt, a cryptocurrency futures trading platform, reveal that Grayscale’s XRP holdings declined by more than 9.18 million on Dec. 29, bringing its total position to 26.45 million XRP, worth $5.77 million at press time.
Grayscale allegedly liquidated more than 9.74 million Stellar Lumens, or XLM, on the same day, taking its total reserves to 9.19 million XLM, or $1.27 million at current prices. The assets under control of Grayscale currently stand at $19.26 billion, with 87% of the amount being Bitcoin (BTC).
The apparent firesale of XRP by Grayscale came a week after the U.S. A complaint against Ripple Labs was brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC. As the price of XRP plummeted 60%, the news prompted a series of delistings from major exchanges, including Coinbase and Bittrex.
Ripple has vowed to fight back against the SEC’s charges and has urged market participants not to reach any conclusions about XRP’s alleged security status until they hear its side of the story.
With all the regulatory scrutiny surrounding Ripple, it’s not difficult to see why Grayscale may be distancing itself from the cryptocurrency. It isn’t entirely clear, however, why the fund manager reduced its exposure to XLM at the same time.
The moves could be a temporary reallocation strategy, as evidenced by recent data showing that Grayscale actually increased its position in XRP and XLM following their recent price dumps.
