Ripple sold twice as much XRP in the last quarter as demand grows for its ODL service

Despite the ongoing legal battle with the Securities Exchange Commission, Ripple reported a 97% increase in sales of XRP for quarter one.

Ripple posted its first-quarter markets report on Thursday, which revealed that total net sales of purchases had gone from $76.27 million in the fourth quarter of 2020 to $150.34 million in the first quarter of this year.

It also noted that the surge in sales was led by the growing demand for RippleNet’s working capital service On-Demand Liquidity, or ODL:

“The increase in XRP sales can be attributed to deeper engagement from key ODL customers. For well over a year, Ripple has not sold programmatically.”

The firm added, “Ripple continued to engage in sales to support ODL and key infrastructure partners, as part of providing increased XRP liquidity to improve the ODL experience of certain customers, eliminating the need for pre-funding and enabling instant global payments.”

According to CryptoCompare, total sales by Ripple accounted for just 0.07% of global XRP volume.

According to Ripple, ODL enables RippleNet clients to source instant liquidity in XRP that can be converted into international currencies within three seconds, removing the need to hold pre-funded accounts for international payments.

The company also reported that over the quarter, 3 billion XRP had been released from its massive escrow holdings, while 2.7 billion XRP had been returned to new escrow contracts.

Some have attributed XRP’s recent resurgence in part with Ripple labs’ purchase of a 40% stake in cross-border payments firm Tranglo, which was acquired to expand its ODL service into Southeast Asia.

Sheraz Ahmed, the host of the Crypto Valley Association Podcast and managing partner at Storm Partners — a crypto and blockchain solutions provider — told Cointelegraph on April 9 that:

“XRP’s upward momentum is fueled by Ripple’s newly announced 40% stake in Asia’s leading cross-border payment processor, Tranglo. The partnership will undoubtedly increase Ripple’s exposure to the Asian market.”

Additionally, wallets holding between 1 million and 10 million XRP grew by 6.3%, up from 1,125 in quarter four of 2020 to 1,196 in quarter on of 2021.

The SEC case accusing Ripple Labs of selling unregistered securities worth $1.3 billion does not appear to be preventing big players from increasing their holdings. The report revealed that the number of XRP whales had increased 3.5% in quarter one. The firm posted data via Santiment, which showed “whale wallets” holding 10 million XRP or more increased from 308 in quarter four of 2020 to 319 in quarter one of 2021.

According to data from CoinGecko, the price of XRP is up 648% in the past 12 months. John Wagster, an attorney at Frost Brown Todd, spoke with Cointelegraph on April 18 and attributed XRP’s mammoth gains to the bullishness in crypto markets in general, rather than to the firm's recent set of legal wins in its defense of the SEC case.

In the past 24 hours, more than $14 billion XRP changed hands, and it currently sits at a price of $1.59, with a market cap of $73 billion.