{"id":103129,"date":"2019-04-25T23:46:37","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T06:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/?p=103129"},"modified":"2026-04-17T12:48:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T11:48:04","slug":"xrp-underperforms-ripple-david-schwartz-sell-holdings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/xrp-underperforms-ripple-david-schwartz-sell-holdings\/","title":{"rendered":"As XRP underperforms Ripple and CTO David Schwartz sell-off holdings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Within the last 30-days, bitcoin<\/a> has gained 29 percent and the crypto markets overall have appreciated 22.5 percent. In contrast, XRP<\/a> underperformed with losses of 7 percent while Ripple<\/a> and its CTO David Schwartz<\/a> have continued to sell-off their holdings.<\/p>\n

BTC\/XRP\u2014Relative Market Analysis<\/h2>\n

On Apr. 1st, bitcoin experienced a spectacular rally that brought its price up from $4,100 to $5,000, and for the last three weeks, the price has seemingly remained stable above that mark.<\/p>\n

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XRP\/BTC year-to-date on CoinMarketCap<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Prior to BTC\u2019s rally, during the trough of the bear market, XRP was one of the best-performing assets<\/a>. From Sep. 1st, 2018 to Jan. 1st, 2019 XRP appreciated 6.7 percent. Over that same period, BTC lost a staggering 47.1 percent of its value.<\/p>\n

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XRP\/BTC September to January on CoinMarketCap<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This change in value is reflected in the dominance of XRP relative to BTC. During that period, XRP climbed from 5.8 to 11.5 percent market dominance, even surpassing Ethereum<\/a> as the number two<\/a> cryptocurrency by market cap in 2018.<\/p>\n

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Sep. 2018 to Jan. 2019 BTC and XRP dominance on CoinMarketCap<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, now that the bulls have returned it seems the tides have turned. XRP is now underperforming compared to its peers, especially BTC.<\/p>\n

Expanding Circulating Supply Puts Pressure on Price<\/h2>\n

One area of concern for XRP holders is the downward price pressure resulting from Ripple and its associates regularly selling XRP.<\/p>\n

Ripple owns roughly 58 billion of the 100 billion XRP in existence. If holdings from insiders such as CEO Brad Garlinghouse<\/a>, co-founders Jed McCaleb<\/a> and Chris Larsen<\/a>, and CTO David Schwartz are included in the calculation the figure is even higher. A more detailed analysis of these holdings is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Ripple\u2019s Q1, 2019 report<\/a>, the company posted $62 million in institutional sales and $107 million in exchange sales for a total sales of $169 million, 563 million XRP at current prices. Ripple increased its sales of XRP (in USD value) by 31.3 percent from Q4, 2018.<\/p>\n

David Schwartz also contributed to these growing sales. Schwartz started regularly selling his XRP holdings in April of 2017 and has continued at an increasing pace to the present day.<\/p>\n

His wallet<\/a> currently holds 3.16 million XRP worth $923,000 at current prices. Since the beginning of 2019, Schwartz sold 2.8 million XRP worth roughly $810,000. Schwartz explained the transactions as \u201cde-risking\u201d after renewed scrutiny<\/a> from the community:<\/p>\n

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This is still the case. Still sticking to the de-risking strategy my wife and I agreed to when we agreed to put our own money into cryptos. What helped me not to be so sad selling during the bull run was thinking how happy I'd be if I regretted my decision, but it still hurt. 1\/2<\/p>\n

— David 'JoelKatz' Schwartz (@JoelKatz) April 21, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n