Ripple’s XRP Sales Saw a Historic Low in Fourth Quarter of 2019

Ripple’s XRP sales continued to drop in the second half of 2019, with sales of the token reaching a historic low in Q4. According to a Jan. 22 blog post by Ripple — the firm behind the third largest crypto asset by market cap — total XRP sales in Q4 2019 accounted for $13.08 million, down more than 80% from the $66.24 million reported in Q3 2019.

The massive decline in XRP sales in 2019 does not appear to be unexpected though. Specifically, quarterly XRP sales were consecutively dropping in 2019 as Ripple initiated the pause of programmatic sales in mid-2019. Announcing the plans in June, Ripple was expecting that XRP sales would would fall significantly:

As Ripple started to reduce the amount of programmatic sales in Q3, the company subsequently saw a notable decline of total XRP sales. In Q2 2019, Ripple’s programmatic sales accounted for nearly 60% of XRP sales that quarter, at $144 million out of the $251 million total. In Q3, programmatic sales comprised 25% of total token sales, weighing in at over $66 million. Finally, Q4 2019 appears to be the first quarter when Ripple has finally got rid of programmatic sales altogether, focusing solely on over-the-counter (OTC) sales. As such, total XRP sales in Q4 2019 only included OTC sales or institutional direct sales.