By Tobi Loba
Ripple and its digital token XRP have been in a mutual and profitable journey over the years. The two payments entities have made impacts amidst major businesses and institutions. More importantly, Ripple and the digital token XRP have come out successfully from the highly competitive cross-border and international payments industry.
Nevertheless, despite all the significant efforts put in place by Ripple to create liquidity expected to favor the price of XRP, the growth of the digital token has been lethargic year-to-date. This slow growth has actually left many XRP and crypto enthusiasts wondering.
CryptoWhale Says XRP Holders Are Temporarily Suppressing Its Price
A trader and cryptocurrency researcher, who is a user on Medium, identified as CryptoWhale on the platform, shared a detailed view on how XRP owners are temporarily suppressing the price of the digital currency to ensure that the co-founder Jed McCaleb’s sell-off does not significantly impact its future growth.
Jed McCaleb co-founded Ripple with Chris Larsen but left the firm to create Stellar (XLM), a decentralized payment network that has the semblance of XRP.
Also, the same McCaleb founded Mt.Gox exchange that was known as the largest Bitcoin exchange which used to handle over 70% of all Bitcoin (BTC) transactions. However, after becoming greatly popular, it went bankrupt in 2014 as a result of the loss of 850,000 BTC worth $1 billion at that time.
Impact of Jed McCaleb on the Price of XRP and Ripple’s Action
In early 2013, when Jed McCaleb left Ripple, he was in possession of about 7 billion XRP, which would leave a devastating impact on the price of XRP if sold at once.
According to CryptoWhale, the tracked activity of McCaleb reveals that he now sells 1.8 million – 2.7 million XRP a day, which is over $400,000–$600,000 a day.
After a lawsuit meant to control McCaleb’s XRP selling rate, the Ripple CTO David Schwartz stated as follows: “Thanks to Ripple’s refusal, Jed’s XRP will probably be worth more than $1bn. He will probably be the only person to become a self-made billionaire despite his best efforts.”
When Jed McCaleb was responding to the question of his XRP sell-off, he pointed out that “The market has known for years that I have been selling my XRP at a slow, steady rate. My investment decisions are not based on any desire to negatively impact other companies in this industry.”
The board of directors at Ripple realized McCaleb’s XRP selling impact if not prevented. This made the two parties go into an agreement that is capable of controlling the amount he could sell daily, to maintain the future growth of XRP.