Key takeaways:
- Former Ripple executive and co-founder Jed McCaleb emptied his XRP balance on July 17
- McCaleb started selling his 9 billion XRP share in 2014, after leaving Ripple to work on Stellar
- McCaleb had been selling his coins gradually over the years in order not to overly disturb the value of XRP
McCaleb began selling his 9 billion XRP stash when he left Ripple in 2014
Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb, who had famously been selling his 9 billion XRP stash in relatively small increments since 2014, finally sold his remaining XRP balance on Monday.
According to XRP Scan, the wallet belonging to a user “tacostand,” known to be McCaleb, now houses just 55 XRP. For context, there were initially roughly 9 billion XRP deposited in the wallet.
A trio of founders consisting of Chris Larsen, Arthur Britto, and McCaleb each received a share of 20 billion XRP in 2012. After leaving the company in 2014 to found crypto competitor Stellar, McCaleb agreed to restrictions on the selling of his XRP in order not to influence the value of the coin too drastically.
The deal stipulated that McCaleb would not sell more than $10,000 worth of XRP per week in the first year after leaving Ripple. The restrictions loosened up over the years, and McCaleb was able to sell as much as 2 billion XRP from 2020 onward.
According to a website tracking tacostand’s XRP outflows, McCaleb was selling 4,074,079 XRP (roughly $1.52 million at current market rates) on average each day for the past three months. The last in a long series of transactions that ultimately emptied the former Ripple executive’s wallet came on July 17 and amounted to 1,108,819 XRP.
Many people in the broader crypto community share the belief that McCaleb’s gradual selloff has been negatively impacting the price of XRP over the years. It is worth noting that the price of XRP rallied by over 10% since McCaleb’s last transaction was made. However, it is hard to say whether the price increase can be attributed to the end of the multi-year selloff or to the broader positive market trend permeating the crypto sector.
