Ripple noted that its XRP ownership is declining and that it only “operates 4 of 130+ validator nodes on the XRPL.”
For the first time in the history of the company, the amount of XRP tokens held by Ripple Lab has fallen below 50% of the entire circulating quantity.
Some have questioned Ripple’s disproportionately substantial holding of XRP coins in the past, claiming that this provides the business consolidated control over its XRP Ledger (XRPL).
Ripple responded to that complaint once more in a Q3 report released on October 27 while also pointing out that its XRP holdings continue to slip below 50 billion tokens or 50% of the total supply.
“Critics have pointed to the company’s XRP ownership as an indicator that the XRP Ledger is controlled by Ripple. This is not true,” Ripple stated, adding that:
“The XRP Ledger (XRPL) uses Federated Byzantine Consensus to validate transactions, add new features, and secure the network, which means that each validator node gets one vote regardless of how much XRP they own.”
The company continued, “At the moment, 4 out of 130+ validator nodes on the XRPL are operated by us.”
According to the report, Ripple’s total net sales of XRP for the third quarter fell to $310.68 million from $408.9 million in the second quarter.
“Ripple has continued to sell XRP only in connection with ODL transactions, and ODL volumes have ramped up as Ripple’s ODL [On-Demand Liquidity] business expanded globally,” the report reads.
The cross-border payments service ODL, one of Ripple’s main commercial solutions, was further developed in Q3 through a cooperation with the FX company Travelex to ease transactions between Brazil and Mexico, according to the company’s announcement.
SEC conflict update
After winning a significant legal battle with the SEC earlier this month over the elusive William Hinman documents, Ripple also remarked on its protracted legal battle with the SEC.
The disputed documents are related to a speech by Hinman, a former SEC division director, in which he portrays the regulatory status of Bitcoin and Ethereum in ways that would support Ripple’s position and refute the SEC’s claims.
“Since Hinman’s market moving speech, the SEC continues to deliberately create ambiguity, instead of providing clear guidance, and uses that ambiguity to bring enforcement actions to stifle crypto innovation in the United States.”
“In terms of next steps, in November, the SEC and Ripple will file reply briefs, and, from there, await the Judge’s decision on the motions,” the report adds.
While XRP is currently down 2.4% over the last 24 hours to $0.46, it has up 3.7% over the past week. Contrary to a number of other significant assets that reached new all-time highs in 2018, XRP’s top occurred on January 7, 2018, at a price of $3.40.
