A new report from distributed ledger startup Ripple suggests institutional investors are increasingly interested in its native cryptocurrency, XRP.
According to the San Francisco startup, its licensed subsidiary sold $31 million worth of XRP during Q2 2017. The figure was up threefold from Q1, when it recorded $6.7 million in sales.
According to the report, $21 million in such purchases came from institutional investors who actively approached the company through Ripple’s licensed money service business. The company sold an additional $10.3 million XRP in a more passive way through sales of the asset to fund its operations.
On public exchanges, Ripple also noted an increasing volume of fiat-for-XRP purchases during the same period, again suggesting an increasingly more mainstream audience.
While bitcoin contributed to 85% of total exchange-traded XRP volume in Q1, this number dropped to 63% by the end of June, according to the company.
As of press time, XRP is trading at $0.17, down from $0.40 on May 17, its most recent all-time high.
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Ripple token image via CoinDesk archieves