2.6 billion XRP tokens moved from Ripple escrow wallet: Institutional buyer or Ripple about to dump on the holders?
It appears that a large amount of XRP tokens have moved from the Ripple escrow wallet to another address igniting a heated speculation in XRP community about possible reason for this.
? ? ? ? ? ? 200,000,000 #XRP (69,838,754 USD) transferred from Ripple Escrow wallet to Ripple OTC Distribution wallet
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) November 27, 2018
If you are a big XRP fan, you see this as institutions buying the dip. If you are on the opposite side of the spectrum, you see this as Ripple Labs cashing out and dumping on the holders.
This was not the only big move, as there were two more:
They moved another 750m then 999m within the same hour.
Transaction Type: Payment
Amount: 999,999,959 XRP
Fee: 12 drops (0.000012 XRP)
Sender: rpuJyWaGf6fvWRYEPzV3beGNySfkLTSjNy
Sender Balance: 21.000988
Receiver: rKveEyR1SrkWbJX214xcfH43ZsoGMb3PEv
Receiver Balance: 2,600,335,064.993
Link: https://t.co/GIc3LLxKrl— XRPL Monitor (@XRPL_Monitor) November 27, 2018
Transaction Type: Payment
Amount: 749,999,979 XRP
Fee: 12 drops (0.000012 XRP)
Sender: rB5pBkPVyk3m9i6TUDHm76hEyFgexcZWuU
Sender Balance: 21.000988
Receiver: rKveEyR1SrkWbJX214xcfH43ZsoGMb3PEv
Receiver Balance: 1,600,335,105.993
Link: https://t.co/t0yHvY3tj2— XRPL Monitor (@XRPL_Monitor) November 27, 2018
It is hard to know what is behind these moves as no official from Ripple has come out with a clarification. Right now, speculation is fuming across communities and as aforesaid: it is either a big institution buying or Ripple needs some money and unloaded a big chunk of their asset. If later is the case, this will cause a big price drop for XRP especially in this low volume, bear market that can’t take up sudden inflation spike of this magnitude.
Ripple has locked 55 billion XRP (55% of the total possible supply) into a series of escrows. These escrows are on the ledger itself and the ledger mechanics, enforced by consensus, control the release of the XRP. The escrow consists of independent on ledger escrows that release a total of one billion XRP each month over the next 55 months. This provides an upper limit on the amount of new XRP that can be brought into circulation.
By placing 55 billion XRP into time-based escrows, Ripple ensures that the supply of XRP in circulation is predictable and increases at a slow but steady rate. Others who hold XRP know that Ripple cannot flood the market, even if the company’s priorities or strategy changes.
This has been a big point in discussing XRP as a cryptocurrency since having one company own 60% of all assets clashes with the original idea of having a decentralized payment method where trust is no longer necessary.
That’s why people when discussing Ripple would always point out that there is a possibility of Ripple for whatever reason deciding to flood the market with these coins and with that completely devaluate them. Of course this wouldn’t necessarily make a lot of sense for the business, but the fact that the possibility is there made many people rather uncomfortable.
Ripple decided to try to stop people from having these concerns by “locking” their coins away from themselves.
