Mass Exodus! Grayscale Removes XRP from its Funds, Series C Lead Investor Sues Ripple, Whales Decreasing.

On the 5th of this month, Grayscale Investments clarified that it did not sell XRP, despite only clarifying this on the 31st. Its fund DLC has removed and sold XRP from its portfolio. The exchange Blockchain.com also announced that it will suspend XRP trading and deposits starting next week. In addition, Tetragon, the lead investor in Ripple's 2019 Series C funding round, has sued Ripple and is seeking to redeem its stock, leading to a deadlock in negotiations.

Grayscale Removes XRP from Large Cap Fund

Grayscale tweeted that its Digital Large Cap Fund (DLC) aims to hold large market value cryptocurrency assets covering 70%. Based on the audit report as of the 31st, it decided to remove XRP, leaving only Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash. Following this news, XRP saw a price drop of nearly 6%.

According to theannouncement, Genesis Global Trading, the authorized participant of the fund, announced the suspension of XRP trading starting at 6 am Taiwan time on January 16, 2021. Consequently, the DLC fund manager decided to remove XRP from the fund portfolio and sell off all positions, which accounted for 1.46%.

As there are currently no other qualified assets, the proceeds from the sale will be allocated to other cryptocurrencies based on their weights. The fund portfolio allocation is as follows and may change daily based on circumstances:

• BTC: 81.63%
• ETH: 15.86%
• BCH: 1.08%
• LTC: 1.43%

Although Grayscale's single asset, the XRP Trust Fund, has not been delisted, all six of its funds have currently suspendedprivate placements.

Blockchain.com Delists XRP

According to the announcement from the UK exchange Blockchain.com,the exchange will stop XRP trading and deposits at 07:59 Taiwan time on January 15. Withdrawals will not be affected. As of now, platforms that have suspended XRP-related trading activities include eToro and Blockchain.com:

C-Round Investor Tetragon Sues Ripple

Tetragon was the lead investor in Ripple's $200 million C-round in 2019, with participating institutions such as SBI and Route 66 Ventures. At that time, Ripple was valued at $10 billion, and CEO Brad Garlinghouse even stated that Ripple might go public through an IPO within the next year.

According toreports from Bloomberg, Tetragon has sued Ripple, demanding that Ripple fulfill the contract to redeem stocks. They have applied to the court for a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, and expedited trial, even attempting to prevent Ripple from using cash or other liquid assets before fulfilling the redemption. Ripple's official statementstated:

Under the contract, if XRP is deemed a security, Tetragon can request stock redemption. However, there is currently no conclusion, so Tetragon's accusations are baseless. We are disappointed that Tetragon is trying to take advantage of the lack of regulatory transparency in the U.S., and the court will vindicate us. Ripple is confident in this matter.

It is understood that the U.S. Southern District of New York court has set February 22 this year as the date for the SEC's lawsuit against Ripple for selling unregistered securities, which has already dealt a heavy blow to Ripple regardless of the outcome. The latest data from The Block indicates that the number of addresses holding over 1 million XRP has decreased by 8%, from 1,705 on December 22 to 1,562 addresses on the 4th.