Brad Garlinghouse, chief executive of Ripple, has responded on Twitter to criticisms that the company has been selling down XRP tokens on the market and crashing the price.

XRP is one of the worst-performing of the major cryptoassets since the end of June and Ripple, which holds around half the total supply of the cryptocurrency, has been accused of dumping large deposits on the market which is adding to the price decline. Indeed, an online petition that calls upon Ripple to halt sales of XRP, now has more than 2,000 signatures.

Chief Exec Responds

Garlinghouse, responded on Wednesday, saying that sales of XRP were about helping expand the token’s utility – to help build the Ripple network and support the development of other businesses. He added:

Reality is we DECREASED our sales by volume quarter on quarter and since then the inflation rate of XRP circulating supply has been lower than that of bitcoin and ether.

He added that Ripple continued to set industry standards in reporting and transparency. “We lay it all out, and it’s not our ‘view’ but fact,” he insisted.

Class Action

Ripple and Garlinghouse are currently co-defendants in a class action lawsuit where thousands of investors who suffered losses accuse the company of selling XRP as an unregistered security. Ripple’s defense is that the XRP token is not a security.

Such uncertainty regarding the possibly-costly outcome of this lawsuit may also have contributed to the toxic investment environment surrounding the cryptocurrency. Since hitting a cyclical high of $0.5055 in late June, XRP has fallen nearly 50% to $0.2665. By comparison, bitcoin is down just 24% over the same period.