Ripple, the company behind the XRP cryptocurrency, has found itself at the center of community speculation after allegedly transferring 200 million XRP tokens to an unknown wallet. This move, reported by Finbold, has led to a 4% decline in the price of XRP on Friday as investors and traders raised concerns about Ripple’s plans for its native token.
According to the report, on June 1, Ripple released 1 billion XRP from the initial distribution locked in monthly escrows until 2027. The company then sent 200 million XRP to its treasury account and locked the remaining 800 million in new escrows. Additionally, the ‘Ripple (35)’ account sent an extra 200 million tokens to the sell-off reserves, totaling 400 million XRP.
This transfer drew the attention of some community members, who speculated that Ripple might be planning to abandon XRP. The suspicions were further fueled by Ripple CTO David Schwartz’s recent reminiscence of a post he made 15 years ago, describing a “scrappy financial startup” taking on corruption to bring instant payments to the masses, while being forced to choose between their vision and survival.
Schwartz’s cryptic post led to questions from traders, with one asking, “Is Ripple abandoning XRP???? Someone needs to explain this ASAP.” However, Schwartz later clarified that his initial post was merely a fictional pitch for a movie, saying, “The circumstances needed to make the pitch match reality haven’t happened ……. yet.”
Despite the speculation, Ripple has been actively striking new partnerships ahead of its planned stablecoin launch. The company recently announced a collaboration with Zoniqx, a digital asset management platform, to deliver tokenization services to the XRP Ledger. Ripple also partnered with Clear Junction to enhance GBP and EUR cross-border payments for its customers.
As the crypto community continues to scrutinize Ripple’s actions, the company’s future plans for XRP remain a topic of intense interest, with any perceived uncertainty potentially impacting the token’s price and market dynamics.
