Blockchain payments startup Ripple has reported a notable improvement in XRP sales during Q3 2018. The company released its XRP market report for the quarter on Oct 25 where it outlined a more than 120 percent growth as compared to the corresponding figure from the preceding three months.
However, despite the bounce back, XRP fell marginally short of the corresponding sales figures from Q1 2018.
XRP Sales Up
Ripple programmatically sold XRP tokens worth $65.27 million during Q3 2018, which it says, accounts for just about 0.17 percent of the total XRP trading that took place during the quarter.
Additionally, Ripple subsidiary XRP II, LLC, a licensed money services business, sold nearly $98 million worth of XRP in direct institutional sales. Both combined, the net sales of XRP during Q3 stood at just over $163 million.
That’s 121 percent higher than the corresponding figure from Q2 2018 ($73.53 million) although Ripple has yet to catch up to the first quarter sales of more than $167.
As for volatility, the report added:
“XRP volatility was light throughout most of the quarter, then jumped in the last two weeks of the quarter as the price also increased.”
Impressive Year-over-Year Growth
Year-over-year, XRP sales figures continue the march forward as it has done throughout the year (barring a few occasional bumps). Compared to $163 million in Q3 2018, Ripple sold only $19.6 million worth XRP in direct sales during the same period last year with an additional $32.6 million coming from programmatic sales.
Ripple also confirmed releasing 3 billion XRP tokens out of escrow during Q3, of which 2.6 billion were later placed in new escrow accounts. The company said the remaining 400 million tokens that were not re-deposited in escrow accounts would be “used in a variety of ways to help support the XRP ecosystem.”
The latest XRP market report also brushed upon the coin’s falling price throughout the quarter ending Sep 30. The company attributed the decline in XRP price to the prolonged slowdown that has clung to the crypto space since the beginning of 2018.
“The total market capitalization of digital assets fell again in the third quarter, declining 12.0 percent. Most of the major assets, including XRP, traded in a continued tight correlation, though XRP price rallied at the quarter end.”
Worth noting here is that in sharp contrast with Ripple’s approach with previous quarterly reports, the latest XRP market report did not discuss the addition of new clients.
