Ripple has published its performance report for the first quarter of 2018 on the company website. The San Francisco startup reported an increase in sales of XRP tokens.
XRP Sales Performance Report for Q1 2018
Ripple sold $167.7 million USD worth of its XRP tokens in the first quarter of 2018. This represents an increase of 83 percent from the sales figures of the previous quarter. The Q1 2018 XRP sales outstrip the Q1 2017 XRP sales by 2,400 percent.
Direct sales of XRP tokens stood at $16.6 million while programmatic sales accounted for the remaining $151.1 million. The direct sales figures indicate a decline of 17 percent from the previous quarter. However, programmatic sales more than doubled from Q4 2017.
Direct sales refer to the sale of XRP tokens conducted by XRP II LLC, the registered money service business (MSB). XRP II is registered by the New York State Department of Financial Services to engage in virtual currency trading. Programmatic sales are third-party sales of XRP by market makers using agreed upon algorithms.
Price and Market Share Performance Report
XRP tokens began the year trading at $1.91 but fell by 73 percent to $0.51 at the end of Q1. According to Ripple, this decline is indicative of the general market decline in the first quarter of 2018. The Ripple share of the total market capitalization increased by more than 100 percent from 3.56 percent to 7.57 percent.
The XRP market volume share also grew from 5.3 percent to 6.9 percent. This increase can be attributed to the fact that XRP was listed in 18 new trading venues in Q1 2018. XRP is now listed on a total of 60 cryptocurrency exchange platforms. The extension of over $16 million worth of XRP loans to market makers also contributed to the increase in the XRP volume share.
Effects of Regulatory Measures on Performance
The report also touched on the regulatory upheavals that characterized the end of 2017 and the start of 2018. The removal of South Korean exchanges from the index price calculations I early January led to a 50 percent market correction across the board.
This led to an XRP price decline of 19.1 percent. The report also stated that the uncertainties created by the situation in South Korea at the start of the year contributed to the increased volatility in the market.
How well do you rate Ripple’s performance in Q1? Share your views in the comment section below.
Image courtesy of Ripple, Pxhere, Shutterstock