29.03.2024

Ripple Co-founder Jed McCaleb Sold 54 Million XRP in April

According to a May 2 report by TheCryptoAssociate based on data from McCaleb’s known addresses, the Ripple co-founder appears to be liquidating his supply of tokens on a regular basis.

Data shows that the wallet address supposedly used by McCaleb to sell XRP received an average of 1.8 million tokens daily in April, totaling 54,215,405 XRP – $11.7 million at the time of press.

Analyzing known wallets for Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb shows he sold off at least 54 million XRP between April 1-30.

Billions of XRP left to sell

McCaleb is a key figure in cryptocurrency’s history, having created the Mt. Gox exchange and co-founded Stellar. He also co-founded OpenCoin in 2012, which later became Ripple, and was allocated 9.5 billion XRP when the 100 billion supply was pre-mined.

This large supply of coins has led to controversy surrounding McCaleb when he announced his intention to sell his portion of XRP, a declaration that caused the token price to fall 40% within 24 hours. He then negotiated a seven-year agreement with Ripple that limited his monthly and annual sales of XRP.

As Cointelegraph has reported, the Stellar CTO still has billions of XRP tokens available in his wallets – nearly 4.7 billion as of February 2020. In response to concerns as to how his behavior might influence the XRP price, McCaleb told Cointelegraph that he has been selling his XRP “at a slow, steady rate” and has no desire to “negatively impact other companies in this industry.”

Ripple Class-Action Lawsuit Can Proceed, Judge Rules

A lawsuit claiming Ripple violated securities laws will be allowed to move forward – though with a caveat favorable to the San Francisco-based payments firm.In a ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton, of the Northern District of California, allowed a putative class-action lawsuit by retail XRP (XRP) buyers to proceed. Hamilton said the suit can include claims filed under federal law but dismissed some claims filed under California state law. Plaintiffs can refile some of the claims under California law in an amended complaint within 28 days, she added.

The order follows a hearing held in mid-January between the plaintiff, which includes Bradley Sostack, a one-time XRP owner, and the defendant, which includes Ripple, its XRP II subsidiary and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse.

Notably, the judge appears to have found Ripple’s argument that the plaintiffs filed their complaint after a legal deadline (the “statute of repose”) persuasive. However, Hamilton said it does not prevent the lawsuit itself from proceeding, pointing to the claims under federal law.

“Based on plaintiff’s complaint and the judicially noticeable facts proffered, the court cannot conclude that defendants’ first bona fide public offer to sell XRP occurred before August 5, 2016”, she said.

The amended complaint at the heart of Wednesday’s ruling was filed in August 2019.

“While defendants did acknowledge various 2013 offers and sales in their May 2015 settlement with the USAO U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, the sales activity identified in that settlement does not show that defendants targeted the general public when offering to sell XRP”, the judge wrote.

The putative lawsuit is now stretching into its second year, after a number of similar complaints were consolidated and moved from state court to federal.

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