Ripple CTO Reveals Surprising Truth About Ripple’s XRP Supply

In new tweets, Ripple CTO David Schwartz unveils a surprising truth about the company’s XRP holdings.

Ripple’s holdings fall into two categories: XRP, which it currently has available in its wallets, and XRP, which is subject to on-ledger escrow lockups that will be released over the coming months.

Ripple does not have access to the latter category of XRP until the escrow releases it monthly. The vast majority of this XRP released has been returned to escrow in the past.

… We tried a variety of other things such as sales with lockups and using XRP to incentivize partners. And what we discovered was that everything that worked with more or less no different from selling XRP. …

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

Responding to a tweet by X user “Mr Huber” on Ripple’s XRP distribution, Schwartz highlights the possibilities presented to Ripple as regards its XRP holdings.

According to him, Ripple has two choices: to continue to hold as much XRP as it does now or to reduce its holdings of XRP. He went on to say that there is no third option.

Ripple’s original plan was to reduce its XRP holdings as rapidly as possible, Schwartz stated. He went on to say that he cannot think of any series of events that would make this initial idea even remotely likely. Even if it happens, Schwartz believes that it might not have any real benefits.

Schwartz went on to say that the initial plan was to primarily use giveaways to lower its XRP supply. He noted that once XRP had a market price, people would spend money to game the giveaways, so it had to stop.

Ripple also explored some other things, such as sales with lockups and utilizing XRP to incentivize partners. It was discovered that everything that worked was essentially the same as selling XRP.

Ripple, according to Schwartz, is more than ten years into its five-year plan and is nearly halfway there.

Responding to users’ questions about escrow or even burning the supply in escrow, Schwartz remarked that he was not sure the escrow was such a good idea and, hence, stayed on the fence.

The Ripple CTO also waived off the idea of burning the escrow supply, implying that it might not have the desired effect.

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