Ripple said its over-the-counter sales of XRP rose sharply in the second quarter of 2020, reaching $32.55 million, up from $1.75 million in the previous quarter. The increase represents a 1,760% jump, according to the company’s earnings release published on August 3.
The latest figures show a clear shift in Ripple’s XRP distribution strategy. While direct OTC sales accelerated, the company said its programmatic sales remained suspended. Ripple had halted those third-party market sales in late 2019 after a prolonged decline in XRP sales, and the pause continued through the April-to-June reporting period.
OTC Sales Rise as Programmatic Sales Stay Paused
Ripple framed the stronger OTC activity as part of its effort to support liquidity for customers using RippleNet’s On-Demand Liquidity, or ODL, service. The company said the focus on over-the-counter transactions has helped provide more XRP liquidity to ODL users, a segment that has become increasingly important to Ripple’s payments strategy.
ODL uses XRP in cross-border payment flows, and Ripple said the service now accounts for 20% of RippleNet volume. The company also noted that ODL transaction volume grew 11-fold in the first half of 2020 compared with the same period a year earlier. Those numbers suggest that, even as broader XRP market activity weakened, Ripple continued to emphasize utility-driven demand linked to its payments network.
Market Trading Activity Declines
Despite the surge in OTC sales, XRP’s broader market metrics moved in the opposite direction during the quarter. Ripple reported that average daily XRP volume fell to 196.3 million, down from 322 million in the first quarter, a decline of roughly 40%.
Measured in dollar terms, total XRP trading volume for the quarter came in at $17.8 billion, compared with $29.6 billion in the prior quarter. That drop highlights the weaker trading environment during the April-to-June period, even as Ripple’s direct institutional and OTC activity expanded.
The contrast between rising OTC sales and falling exchange-driven volume is one of the report’s most notable takeaways. It points to a market in which Ripple’s own distribution channels and liquidity initiatives were gaining importance, while broader speculative or retail trading activity lost momentum.
Liquidity Support from Derivatives and Secondary Market Activity
Ripple also pointed to growing support from XRP-linked derivatives products. According to the company, additional liquidity has been aided by new offerings in the derivatives market, including Binance’s XRP options contracts and Huobi’s XRP perpetual swaps. These products can deepen market participation and provide more trading tools for institutions and sophisticated traders.
In addition, Ripple said it has been buying XRP on the secondary market and may continue to make purchases at market prices in the future. The company described these actions as part of a broader effort to help maintain a stable and efficient XRP market structure.
Ripple argued that a “healthy, orderly XRP market” is necessary to reduce costs and risks for customers. In its view, supporting liquidity is not just about token trading, but also about ensuring that financial institutions using RippleNet’s ODL service can access XRP efficiently as transaction demand grows.
XRP Volatility Eases in Q2
Another data point highlighted in the report was XRP’s lower volatility. During the quarter, XRP volatility fell to 3.0%, representing a 6.2% decline from the first quarter. Ripple said XRP was less volatile during the period than both bitcoin and ethereum, the two largest digital assets by market value.
Lower volatility can be meaningful for payment-focused use cases, particularly for services such as ODL that rely on moving value quickly across markets. While Ripple did not suggest that lower volatility alone drove adoption, the metric supports the company’s broader argument that XRP can play a practical role in cross-border liquidity management.
A Mixed Quarter for Ripple and XRP
Overall, Ripple’s second-quarter update painted a mixed picture. On one hand, the company posted a dramatic rise in OTC XRP sales and reported strong momentum in ODL-related transaction growth. On the other hand, XRP’s average daily volume and total dollar-denominated trading activity both fell significantly during the same period.
That divergence underscores the dual nature of XRP’s market position. Ripple continues to promote the asset as a utility token embedded in payment infrastructure, while the broader trading market remains subject to shifts in sentiment, participation, and liquidity conditions.
For observers of Ripple and XRP, the quarter’s results suggest that the company’s strategy is increasingly centered on institutional liquidity channels and payments-driven usage rather than exchange-based programmatic distribution. Whether that approach can offset weaker market-wide trading activity remains an open question, but the second-quarter numbers show that Ripple was already moving decisively in that direction.