The so-called “programmatic sales” of XRP (essentially meaning open market exchange sales) have made another return – with major blockchain company Ripple once again claiming it’s due to On-Demand Liquidity (ODL).
In their May 6 report, Ripple wrote that, for “well over a year,” they have not sold programmatically. In the first quarter of this year, they continue, total XRP sales by Ripple, net of purchases, were USD 150.34m compared to USD 76.27m in the previous quarter.
“The increase in XRP sales can be attributed to deeper engagement from key ODL customers,” claimed the company, adding that they “continued to engage in sales to support ODL and key infrastructure partners as part of providing increased XRP liquidity to improve the ODL experience of certain customers, eliminating the need for pre-funding and enabling instant global payments.”
ODL-related sales include leases, over-the-counter (OTC), and XRP sales to support ODL (including Line of Credit) and key infrastructure partners, they further noted.
Certain wallets used for XRP sales also provide short-term leases to market makers, and these are “often mischaracterized by market participants as sales,” they said, adding that leases are ultimately returned to Ripple.
This isn’t the first time Ripple resumed programmatic sales of XRP, saying it’s a part of their strategy to provide “increased XRP liquidity to RippleNet’s ODL customers, as they were seeing increased interest from financial institutions. As reported in August 2020, Ripple had stated that the total XRP sales ended at USD 32.55m for the second quarter 2020 – an 18x increase, which pushed the price of XRP higher on that day.
Meanwhile, today, at 7:42 UTC, XRP is down by 2% in a day, trading at USD 1.62. It’s up 4% in a week. Overall, it appreciated 63% in a month and 655% in a year.
As reported, in March Ripple agreed to acquire 40% of Asian cross-border payments specialist Tranglo “to meet the growing demand for ODL,” saying it would help Ripple expand the reach of ODL to the APAC region.
Per this latest post, Ripple also reported that the average XRP daily volume in Q1 was USD 2.26bn, compared to USD 1.61bn in the previous quarter. “Notably, XRP volumes posted four of the highest volume days ever recorded,” Ripple said, citing CryptoCompare.
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