The month of “Uptober” comes to a close with signs that a bull market could be beginning. In this context, Ripple sold more than $100 million worth of 200 million XRP, while the price of the token showed a slight recovery. Additionally, Ripple revealed a $10 million donation to Kamala Harris' presidential campaign.
On October 21, Ripple exhausted the 200 million XRP reserved in its treasury account for this month's sales. The amount was sent to the unknown address 'rP4X2hTa7A7udDbE6wczXvPz7XZ63sKxv3', which Ripple usually uses for its monthly transactions. Although the company did not disclose the specific details of this sale, it is known that Ripple uses an On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) model to sell XRP at the market price to interested customers.
XRP Price Performance
The Ripple token has shown a slight upward trend since the beginning of October, known as “Uptober” due to its historical positive performance. On September 29, XRP reached a local high of $0.65, but fell to a low of $0.514 on October 3. The token is currently trading at $0.541, up 5.25% from that low, although it is still down 9.05% over the past 30 days.
Despite the recent surge, the price of XRP has been affected by Ripple's huge sales, including the 1 billion XRP unlocked on October 1. These sales have created pressure on the market, resulting in underperformance of other cryptocurrencies.
Political context of Ripple and XRP
Ripple has also been in the news for its political stance. On October 21, hours before the sale of 200 million XRP, Chris Larsen, co-founder and CEO of Ripple, announced a $10 million donation to Kamala Harris' presidential campaign. Larsen explained that Harris would take a favorable approach towards technological innovation and cryptocurrencies, which motivated his contribution.
However, this donation could have had an impact on XRP investors, diluting their holdings to support Harris. Although Harris has joined Donald Trump in seeking votes in the crypto community, her proposals, such as increasing capital gains taxes, have been seen as a threat to the blockchain industry.
Future prospects
Looking ahead, Ripple could continue to increase selling pressure on XRP. In previous months, the company has sold 400 million and 350 million XRP, and is expected to unlock another 1 billion tokens on November 1, restarting its monthly sales cycle.
