Ripple announced on its website that by selling $167.7 million worth of XRP in the first three months of 2018, sales increased by 83 percent compared to the previous quarter and by 2,400 percent compared to the first quarter of 2017.
Ripple has long had a close relationship with its technology XRP Ledger, with which it develops tools for enterprise businesses. The company also said that direct sales of XRP were $16.6 million, down 17 percent from the previous quarter.
On the other hand, the cryptocurrency’s programmatic sales more than doubled, from $71.5 million to $151.1 million.
Ripple’s Head of Corporate Communications Tom Channick told CoinDesk that XRP sales He said that the company exceeded his expectations.
The total volume of XRP traded worldwide is 1. It reached $160 million, a marked increase of 68 percent in the quarter.
XRP’s prestige in the cryptocurrency market 1. increased in the quarter. The overall market volume increased from 5.3 percent at the end of 2017 to 6.9 percent at the end of March.
While the total market capitalizations of all digital assets were the same on November 24, 2017 and March 31, 2018, the share of XRP in market capitalization doubled to percent. It rose from 3.56 to 7.57 percent.
The price of XRP had risen from less than $0.25 to $3.84 in early January.. Since then, XRP has fallen sharply and dropped below $1.. Currently, the approximate value of XRP is $0.84.
Ripple’s first quarter report also touched on the negative impact of a global regulatory crisis on cryptocurrency prices, along with uncertainty about the future.
Ripple has released quarterly XRP reports since the fourth quarter of 2016.
The company’s chief cryptographer, David Schwartz, described the programmatic sales as follows:
“This sale is made by third parties. Ripple has no direct control over these sales and cannot adjust its timing in the short term.”
In contrast, direct sales are handled by XRP II, LLC, a registered and licensed money service company.. As the company has stated in the past, the main buyers are financial institutions.
Ripple put 55 billion XRP in commodity accounts in December to ensure the certainty of the supply of XRP at any given time.. The company owns approximately 300 million of these XRPs.. released in the quarter.