Ripple is preparing for its largest monthly XRP sell-off since 2017, with plans to dump 400 million tokens valued at $208 million in June. Despite the bearish trends in the market, whale activity suggests significant interest from large investors.
In line with its regular practice, Ripple unlocked 1 billion XRP, worth $520 million, on June 1 using the XRP Ledger escrow mechanism. The tokens were released from two designated accounts, “Ripple (24)” and “Ripple (25)”.
Adding to the anticipation of a big sell-off this month, the dormant account “Ripple (35)” transferred 200 million XRP to “Ripple (1)”, in addition to the usual 200 million tokens given to the Treasury each month.
In May, “Ripple (24)” sent 200 million XRP to “Ripple (1)”, followed by a transfer of 300 million tokens to “Ripple (13)”, which were then re-locked in escrow until September 2027. Similarly, “Ripple (25)” transmitted 500 million unlocked tokens to “Ripple (12)”, locking them until October 2027. XRP Scan has verified all these transactions on-chain.
Since introducing escrows in 2017, Ripple has never set aside more than 350 million XRP for its monthly dumps. The company occasionally retains some reserves for future sell-off opportunities, but it has never dumped more than 400 million XRP at once.
Ripple’s sales put supply pressure on the spot market, often resulting in local price crashes for the token. Out of the 12 sell-off days this year, only five have seen positive price action, highlighting the importance of monitoring Ripple’s operations. XRP performed negatively on a monthly basis for three out of the first five months of 2024.
As of now, the price of XRP is approximately $0.5142, down 1.03% in the last 24 hours. It also reflects a negative position of 3.91% for the previous seven days. Additionally, a whale acquired $52 million worth of XRP tokens from Binance.
In summary, Ripple’s upcoming sell-off and whale activity indicate significant interest from large investors, despite the current bearish trends in the market.