Ripple CTO Reveals He Went For Ripple Shares than XRP

David Schwartz, the Ripple CTO, recently disclosed that he opted to receive Ripple shares instead of an XRP allocation.

Schwartz revealed this in a recent discussion surrounding Ripple’s substantial XRP holdings. Notably, the firm’s Q3 2023 XRP Markets Report, released last November, showed that it held 46.55 billion XRP as of September 2023, representing 46.5% of the asset’s max total supply of 100 billion tokens.

Of the 46.55 billion tokens in its custody, Ripple held a spendable balance of 5.258 billion XRP, with 41.3 billion XRP in escrow. The company typically releases 1 billion XRP from escrow every month but relocks 800 million shortly after.

Ripple Continues to Sell XRP

Ripple has continued to sell off its spendable XRP balance in an elaborate effort to reduce its XRP holdings.

The firm sold 892 million XRP in Q3 2023, per the latest XRP markets report. The constant XRP sales have raised concerns of sustained price suppression on XRP.

These concerns have resulted in calls for a different approach, such as the incineration of Ripple’s escrow balance. In the latest discussion, an individual with the X name “GPD.Burn the Escrow” asked if Ripple’s business model would always involve XRP sales.

The Ripple CTO Schwartz jumped on this question, emphasizing that the firm has two options with its XRP holdings. According to him, they could continue to hold these tokens, or they could systematically sell them to reduce their holdings.

Schwartz stressed that the firm does not have a third choice. However, he confirmed that they have a goal to reduce their holdings as quickly as they can. This mission might explain the increased rate of XRP sales in recent times.

When asked if burning the escrow would not be feasible, Schwartz noted that he could not conceive any event that would actually make this even viable.

He further asserted that it would not bring any benefits. The Crypto Basic called attention to this comment in a previous report.

Ripple CTO Preferred Ripple Shares to XRP

Amid the sustained discussion, another community member asked if Schwartz actually opted to receive Ripple shares instead of XRP.

The Ripple CTO disclosed that this is true. According to him, he preferred to get some portion of the Ripple shares rather than an allocation of XRP.

Yes. The jury is still out on whether that was a good decision. The XRP certainly would have been more liquid.

— David “JoelKatz” Schwartz (@JoelKatz) January 8, 2024

However, Schwartz noted that he is still not sure if that decision was the right one. According to him, if he had received XRP tokens instead of Ripple shares, his holdings would have been more liquid right now.

Notably, the market valuation of Ripple’s shares currently stands at around $11.3 billion. The Crypto Basic recently disclosed that the firm intends to buy back $285 million worth of its shares. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse noted that the firm does not plan to IPO anytime soon.

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