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A member of the XRP community, known as Sherrie, has recently addressed accusations against Ripple, the cryptocurrency firm, over the alleged manipulation of its XRP token’s price.
This development follows the surfacing of documents indicating Ripple’s engagement with GSR, a global crypto market maker, to employ trading bots for institutional sales of XRP. Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer has refuted these allegations, clarifying that the company halted such practices.
Sherrie provided a perspective on the matter, likening Ripple’s actions to those of any other business seeking to raise funds through market activities. She drew parallels between Ripple’s market actions and those of conventional financial operations, such as a company selling and later repurchasing its shares. This, she argued, does not constitute manipulation but rather reflects the basic economic principle of supply and demand.
Sherrie further elaborated on her argument by making a distinction between manipulation and causation. She used the analogy of gravitational force to explain that market dynamics naturally lead to price changes. According to Sherrie, Ripple’s XRP sales were aimed at fundraising rather than influencing the token’s market price.
In addition, Sherrie highlighted Ripple’s legal victories against the SEC’s allegations of selling unregistered securities, suggesting these outcomes support Ripple’s claim of transparency in its business practices. This stance offers a rebuttal to ongoing discussions within the XRP community and beyond regarding Ripple’s potential impact on XRP’s market performance.
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Controversy has flared around Ripple, the largest XRP holder, following revelations by a crypto researcher known as Darkhorse. Darkhorse’s analysis of court documents from the SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit suggested that Ripple might have instructed GSR Markets to use bots for trading strategies that potentially influenced XRP’s price between 2015 and 2016. These strategies were detailed in documents outlining Ripple’s coordination with GSR to buy and sell XRP, aiming to impact its price favorably.
A graph from the court documents, indicating a correlation between net XRP sales by GSR and XRP/USD price movements, has been central to these discussions. Darkhorse described a pattern where Ripple would signal upcoming news to GSR, prompting preemptive buying of XRP to initiate a price rally, followed by selling into the momentum.
The XRP community has closely followed these developments, with comments from respected members like Wrathof Kahneman, who noted the documents suggest efforts to stabilize and boost XRP’s price. Ripple executives, including CTO Schwartz, have addressed these claims, emphasizing the discontinuation of programmatic sales of XRP since 2019, a move detailed in Ripple’s quarterly reports.
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