Ripple Says Sales of XRP Cryptocurrency Rose 83% In Q1

Ripple reported Wednesday that sales of its cryptocurrency XRP totaled $167.7 million in the first three months of 2018, an increase of 83% compared to the previous quarter and of 2,400% compared to the first quarter of 2017.

According to a post on the firm's site, direct sales of XRP totaled $16.6 million - a decline of 17% compared to the previous quarter.

Tom Channick, Ripple's head of corporate communications, told CoinDesk that XRP sales "Exceeded our expectations."

The total volume of XRP traded globally also increased markedly in Q1: volumes grew 68% to reach $160 billion for the period.

XRP's clout relative to the total cryptocurrency market grew in Q1, with its share of overall market volume growing from 5.3% at the end of 2017 to 6.9% at the end of March.

At the time of writing, 1 XRP is worth around $0.81.

Ripple markets XRP and other solutions to banks as a means to increase efficiency and reduce cost in payments, particularly those transacted across borders.

Ripple has issued quarterly XRP reports since Q4 2016, when it sold $4.6 million XRP directly to institutions.

Direct sales, by contrast, are conducted by XRP II, LLC, a registered and licensed money service business.

Ripple placed 55 billion XRP in escrow accounts in December "To create certainty of XRP supply at any given time." The company released around 300 million of these XRP in Q1, which it says "Are being used in a variety of ways to help invest in the XRP ecosystem."