Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb has sold little over 240 million XRP tokens so far this month, and still has a balance of over 431 million XRP in his “~tacostand” wallet, according to data from XRPScan.
McCaleb is said to have started working on Ripple back in 2011, and was part of its founding team when the firm launched in 2013. While he left it in 2014 to work on Stellar (XLM), he was awarded 8 billion XRP tokens for his role in developing and founding OpenCoin, which was later rebranded to Ripple.
The entrepreneur receives the funds on a fixed schedule and has made it clear via XRP Talk, a forum for XRP investors and proponents, that he plans on selling the funds he receives, as he has already donated part of the funds to charities such as Give Directly, Literacy Bridge, and others.
Since then, he has been periodically selling XRP. So far this month McCaleb has sold 240 million tokens worth around $148 million at press time, as each XRP token is trading at around $0.618. The cryptocurrency is down significantly from its over $3 all-time high seen in early 2018 and from this year’s high over $2.
It’s worth noting McCaleb’s large XRP sales continued even after the cryptocurrency endured a major sell-off over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) lawsuit against Ripple Labs last year. The SEC has alleged Ripple and two of its executives “raised over $1.3 billion through an unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering.”
The price of XRP has also been influenced by recent concerns surrounding bitcoin’s carbon footprint, as some investors have been turning to more energy-efficient cryptocurrencies. Ripple, the largest holder of XRP, as CryptoGlobe reported, reiterated its intention to be carbon-neutral by 2030 late last month.
DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.
IMAGE CREDIT
Featured image from Pixabay
