XRP sales fell 80% in the fourth quarter of 2019

Key facts:

Sales operations in the over-the-counter (OTC) market fell 74%.

The suspension of scheduled sales is one of the reasons for the sharp decline.

Ripple's XRP cryptocurrency sales fell dramatically in the last quarter of 2019, at least in part due to the change in the way the company sells the cryptocurrency, located in the top of the market capitalization ranking.

XRP sales in the period studied fell 80%, from USD 66.4 million sold in the third quarter of 2019 to approximately USD 13 million in the fourth quarter, according to Ripple's XRP market report.

This fall can be attributed to a total suspension of the company's scheduled sales, which were valued at USD 16.1 million in the third quarter of the year. OTC operations in the over-the-counter (OTC) market also fell 74% quarter-over-quarter.

In that sense, the report explains that in the third quarter of 2019, Ripple further reduced XRP sales and paused scheduled sales. An approach he maintained throughout the fourth quarter. He adds that OTC operations were focused on providing liquidity and utility to partners in "strategic regions", which included Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Last June Ripple announced that it would adopt a "more conservative approach" in XRP quarterly sales in order to address concerns about poorly reported volumes in cryptocurrency exchange houses. This was formalized shortly after the company sold about USD 251 million of XRP in the third quarter.

Scheduled sales were made directly to the exchange offices and were used to represent the majority of cryptocurrency sales figures, estimated at USD 144.6 million in the second quarter of 2019.

In his report, Ripple also said that his On Demand Liquidity (ODL) tool, which uses cryptocurrency as a bridge for cross-border payments, had proven successful with customers. The dollar value of XRPs operated from ODL grew by 650% between the third and fourth quarter, with transaction volumes that increased 390% in the last quarter.

Excluding the billions of tokens launched in early January, the company's reserve accounts currently have about 48.9 billion XRP tokens.