Blockchain payments firm Ripple Labs Inc has moved a total of 800 million XRP into an escrow wallet as it seeks to rebalance the circulating supply of the digital currency. In reaction to the escrow activity, the XRP price has inked a mild uptick of 4.61% in 24 hours to $0.5126. However, this massive XRP lockup has yet to correct all the losses of the past week.
XRP recorded an intense valuation shrink in the past month as market sentiment waned. Despite the latest uptick, XRP is still down by 2.04% over the past week and by more than 14% in the past month.
This price outlook is a rather shocking one considering that the 800 million XRP lockup is a major supply-shrinking strategy. As recorded by market data intelligence provider Whale Alert, the lockups came in three distinct tranches. The first features 500,000,000 XRP valued at $258,724,981, and the second was a 100 million lockup worth over $51.8 million.
A total of 200 million XRP, or $103,655,197, was locked up as the third tranche. The firm received the 800 million dumped into the escrow account shortly before the recorded transactions.
Ripple lawsuit, Stablecoin update
Ripple Labs’ involvement in the management of XRP’s market volume remains the key fuel behind the firm’s yet-to-be-concluded lawsuit with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
With the case now in the remedies negotiation phase, the market is keen on what the outcome will be. The market performance of XRP in the long term may also be impacted by the proposed Ripple stablecoin asset.
This stablecoin asset might have a negative impact as it could reduce demand for XRP as a payment option in Ripple’s business. Ultimately, the association with the coin might liberate it, with a likely price outlook rebooted in the long term.