Fujian, China – December 28, 2021: XRP cryptocurrency on shiny background.
The XRP price has been on a consistent downtrend since the US SEC announced its intention to file for an interlocutory appeal in its case against Ripple. In the two months that have followed Judge Analisa Torres’s ruling, the altcoin has shared all of its gains achieved from the victory. And now, as the XRP price continues to struggle, speculations have erupted in the community on whether Ripple is to blame for the decline.
Scrutinizing The Latest Ripple Acquisition
Late last week, Ripple Labs made an announcement that it had acquired Fortress Trust. Fortress which is a financial institution heavily involved in the blockchain and Web3 space was eagerly welcomed given that it carried the promise of helping Ripple further its interests in the sectors of asset tokenizations, cross-border payments, etc.
However, in the days following the news of the acquisition, questions have emerged as to whether this acquisition has anything to do with the XRP price falling in the last couple of days. Mainly, the questions have revolved around whether Ripple had sold a significant amount of XRP in order to finance the Fortress acquisition.
One of those who raised the question is Bill Morgan. The lawyer responded to an X (formerly Twitter) post stating that Ripple had made Fortress Trust holders whole as part of the deal. “I wouldn’t want to think that Ripple sold a lot of XRP to fund this acquisition and bailing out of Fortress customers putting downward price pressure on XRP,” Morgan wrote. However, he further went on to clarify that XRP was not the only cryptocurrency that saw a price decline in the market.
Another X user chimed in as well to share their thoughts on the matter. The account which goes by Moon Lambo argued in favor of Ripple that the company already had a substantial amount of cash ($1 billion) in the bank. “Of course I can’t say with any certainty how they funded the purchase, but I suspect they didn’t sell more XRP than normal to pay for it,” the X user said.
Not everyone seems convinced that Ripple didn’t sell XRP to finance the deal. One X user in particular pointed out how the altcoin has performed in comparison to Bitcoin, asking users to not “ignore the worrying issues.”
yes that is true but dont ignore the worrying issues. xrp settled at .5c – .52 after the lawsuit with btc at around 25.8-26 range. btc now 25.7, xrp? .47c. its slowly and slowly losing 1% there, 2% here, slowly and slowly its going down, its being done systematically.
— Donny Crypto (@MrCryptoGB) September 12, 2023
XRP falls to two-month low | Source: XRPUSD on Tradingview.com
XRP Price Is Worst Performer Of The Top 10
The speculations that Ripple may have sold tokens to finance the Fortress Trust deal are as a result of the altcoin’s performance since the deal was announced. While there is a general bearish trend for the market, XRP looks worse off than the rest, especially when it comes to the top 10.
The likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum have been consolidating in a tight range after finding support last week. However, the XRP price has continued to decline. This suggests that XRP is still seeing a lot of selling pressure at a time when seller exhaustion is being marked across similar assets.
XRP is currently the worst performer of the top 10 largest cryptocurrencies by market cap after falling 1.6% in the last 24 hours. But there is no evidence of Ripple selling tokens, which means the sell pressure is likely coming from elsewhere.
Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com
