As concerns grow over Ripple’s continued sales of XRP, an executive hinted at conditions under which the company could stop selling its tokens.
Over the years, members of the XRP community have repeatedly complained about Ripple’s sale of XRP on the open market.
Concerns about Ripple’s XRP sales
For context, Ripple received an initial allocation of 80 billion XRP and has consistently sold some of these holdings to fund its operations. In 2017, the company locked up 55 billion XRP and introduced an escrow system that schedules the release of 1 billion tokens every month.
Ripple then sold some of these released tokens to cover operating costs. Despite subsequent adjustments to the escrow structure (up to 80% of the released tokens, or approximately 800 million tokens, could be sold), many XRP investors continued to express concerns, claiming that the steady sales would negatively impact the token’s price fluctuations.
Although these complaints have eased in recent years, especially after multiple analysts showed that XRP moves roughly in line with the broader cryptocurrency market, some investors still blame Ripple. This sentiment tends to resurface most strongly during periods of severe market downturns.
David Schwartz talks about how Ripple could stop selling
As XRP continues to face downward pressure and familiar concerns resurface, we revisit previous comments by Ripple CTO David Schwartz and consider what could reduce the need for the company to sell its XRP holdings.
During the discussion, Schwartz explained that Ripple could ease selling pressure by developing alternative revenue streams. In his view, by generating revenue from sources other than XRP sales, the company will not have to liquidate its token holdings as before.
Schwartz made this point when responding to a community member who claimed that Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin poses a risk to XRP. According to users, since RLUSD is backed 1:1 by the US dollar, Ripple could eventually shift its focus and utility from XRP to stablecoins, potentially orphaning Ripple itself even if the price of XRP collapses.
However, Schwartz rejected this reasoning. Instead, he emphasized that a more sustainable solution lies in building additional revenue streams, thereby naturally reducing Ripple’s dependence on XRP sales.
