Crash incoming? Ripple to unlock 1 billion XRP on April 1

Ripple, the company behind the XRP Ledger development, will unlock 1 billion XRP tokens on April 1, worth $628.5 million. This is part of Ripple’s monthly sell-offs, which could negatively impact the XRP price in the following weeks.

Historically, Ripple has been unlocking 1 billion tokens through escrows, finalized on the first day of every month since 2017. April will mark the start of a new epoch for XRP’s inflation, using different accounts from the past few years.

So far, the company has been using ‘Ripple (22)’ and ‘Ripple (23),’ according to XRPScan, as reported in March’s unlock.

Assets summary and escrows for Ripple (10) and Ripple (11). Source: XRPScan

What happened after Ripple’s XRP token unlock in March

The escrow system unlocked 1 billion XRP on March 1, from ‘Ripple (22)’ and ‘Ripple (23)’ accounts. Later, Ripple reserved 200 million tokens for March’s sell-off and re-locked the rest in escrows for July and August 2027.

Monthly Ripple (XRP) unlock – March, 2024. Source: Finbold

However, the company spent 240 million XRP from its treasury account, ‘Ripple (1),’ in March, using old reserves. The sell-offs occurred in two batches, all sent to the same address, ‘rP4X2…Kxv3’.

As developed, Ripple sent the 200 million XRP to its reserves on March 1. Further, the payment protocol made one transaction of 100 million tokens on March 5 and one of 140 million XRP on March 13.

Ripple (1) account summary and transactions. Source: XRPScan

XRP price analysis amid sell-offs

It is notable how Ripple’s previous sell-offs could have impacted the XRP price. Finbold placed each of the company’s selling activities year-to-date on XRP’s daily chart.

Interestingly, only two out of eight days had a slightly positive price action. Yet, even these ‘green’ days were made of shy gains, while the negative ones were more impactful.

XRP/USD daily chart with Ripple sell-offs year-to-date. Source: TradingView (Finbold)

As of writing, XRP trades at $0.6285 while maintaining a range above the $0.60 support and below the $0.65 resistance. Therefore, investors should closely monitor Ripple’s selling activities in April after unlocking more than $628.5 million worth of tokens.

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