Grayscale Investments, the world’s largest digital asset manager, has reportedly dumped a significant portion of its XRP and XLM holdings.
Data from Bybt, a cryptocurrency futures trading platform, shows that Grayscale’s XRP holdings fell more than 9.18 million on December 29, bringing a total position of 26.45 million XRPs worth 5.77 million Means US dollars at the time of going to press.
On the same day, Grayscale reportedly liquidated over 9.74 million Stellar Lumens (XLM), increasing its total holding to 9.19 million XLM, or $ 1.27 million at today’s prices.
Grayscale’s assets under management currently stand at $ 19.26 billion, with Bitcoin (BTC) accounting for 87% of total assets.
Grayscale’s apparent fire sale of XRP came a week after the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs. The news sparked a wave of delistings from major exchanges, including Coinbase and Bittrex, as the price of XRP fell 60%.
Ripple has vowed to fight back against the SEC’s indictment and has urged market participants not to draw any conclusions about XRP’s alleged security status until they learn the side of the story.
With all the regulatory controls surrounding Ripple, it is not difficult to see why shades of gray may distance themselves from the cryptocurrency. However, it is not entirely clear why the fund manager reduced its exposure to XLM at the same time.
The moves could be a temporary redistribution strategy, as evidenced by recent data showing that Grayscale actually expanded its position in XRP and XLM after the recent price dumps.
Stellar was co-founded by Jed McCaleb, a software developer who was part of Ripple’s founding team before leaving the project in 2014. As of December 9, McCaleb’s public XRP wallet contained over 251 million XRP. He has reportedly sold hundreds of millions of dollars in XRP since early 2016.
Grayscale and Stellar didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
