Ripple Releases 1 Billion XRP Tokens from Escrow

Blockchain giant Ripple has recently released 1 billion XRP tokens, as reported by Whale Alert, a crypto wallet monitoring service.

The company initially set aside 55 billion XRP tokens in escrow accounts back in 2017, with the intention of gradually releasing 1 billion tokens each month to stabilize the cryptocurrency’s supply. Despite this plan, fewer tokens usually enter circulation than the allocated amount.

According to Whale Alert, at 10:50 UTC+8 today, 1 billion XRP were unlocked from the rDqGA…mKxEsF in three transactions, with a value of over $560 million dollars. The address: rDqGA…mKxEsF was marked as an official Ripple address by XRPSCAN and bithomp.…

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) September 1, 2024

Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer, David Schwartz, noted that expired XRP from escrow accounts remains there until action is taken to cancel it.

Many of these escrows are divided into several smaller ones that all expire simultaneously for easier management. Schwartz has previously expressed uncertainty about whether the escrow arrangement was the best approach, having initially opposed its creation.

Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, has not dismissed the idea of destroying XRP tokens from the escrow, stating he is open to exploring options that could benefit the XRP ecosystem.

Schwartz suggested that deactivating the escrow account could effectively prevent those tokens from ever being used, similar to burning them.