Enterprise blockchain solutions provider Ripple reported that the fourth-quarter sales of XRP, the second largest cryptocurrency, declined sequentially, despite significant growth in global volume. Ripple also announced a new $300 million RippleNet Accelerator Program to grow volume and XRP utility.
In its fourth-quarter markets report, Ripple said it has sold $129.03 million worth of XRP in the latest quarter, lower than $163 million during the third quarter. The company sold $535.56 million worth of XRP in the full year 2018.
Global XRP trading volume surged to 54.8 billion in the fourth quarter from 38 billion in the third quarter. The company's sales as of total volume was 0.24 percent in the quarter.
In the quarter, Ripple sold $88.88 million worth of XRP, programmatically. This represented 0.16 percent, or 16.2 basis points of the total XRP volume traded globally in the fourth quarter. XRP II, LLC , a Ripple subsidiary, sold $40.15 million worth of XRP in institutional direct sales.
In the year, global XRP volume was 298.46 billion. The company's sales as of total volume was 0.18 percent in the year.
Ripple noted that XRP's volatility of daily returns was 5 percent - the lowest quarterly average since the fourth quarter of 2016. Conversely, the average daily volume for XRP increased substantially, and was $595.7 million - the highest quarterly average since first quarter of 2018.
Regarding its accelerator program, Ripple said it will offer a unique reward for financial institutions that are the first in their markets to process and promote commercial payments on RippleNet. The RippleNet Accelerator Program consists of a Volume Rebate and an Adoption Marketing Incentive.
The program is funded by $300 million of XRP from Ripple's XRP holdings.
Monica Long, VP of Marketing at Ripple, said, "We're borrowing a page from the likes of PayPal (with their early days adoption and referral bonuses), implementing incentives to accelerate network effects on RippleNet.....Early reception of these XRP incentives in a test phase has been very positive."
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