The company Ripple carried out the XRP begining February, releasing 1 billion tokens from its scheduled escrow system, amid a context of weakness for the asset. Despite the magnitude of the figure, the firm re-locked 700 million units, leaving a net supply of 300 million in the active market.
This monthly release, valued at approximately 1.6 billion dollars, is part of a transparency strategy started in 2017 to manage the cryptocurrency circulation in a predictable way. However, the event coincided with a negative close in January, a month in which the token lost more than 10% of its market value, dragged down by the general bearish trend.
Whale Alert data confirmed that the escrow return transactions were carried out in two tranches, ensuring the stability of Ripple’s operational flow in the long term. Nevertheless, persistent selling pressure has pushed the price to levels not seen since October, generating uncertainty among retail investors who were expecting an early recovery.
What impact do David Schwartz’s statements have on investors?
Ripple’s CTO, David Schwartz, recently suggested that current prices reflect a lack of confidence in unrealistic price targets, such as 100 dollars. Schwartz argued that if the market truly believed in such figures, investors would not sell their assets below 10 dollars, which would trigger immediate and aggressive accumulation.
Furthermore, technical analysts point out that the asset is in a re-accumulation phase, which could precede a major macroeconomic move in the coming cycles. Therefore, the current price weakness is interpreted as a reflection of actual market sentiment, which prioritizes the cryptocurrency’s utility over the excessive speculation that usually circulates on social media.
In the short term, attention remains on the support levels near $1.50, the break of which could deepen losses in February. Meanwhile, the community awaits the next XRP unlock in February to evaluate whether institutional demand manages to absorb the increase in the circulating supply in the global market for digital assets.
