Ripple Keeps 200M XRP, Locks 800M XRP After Releasing 1B coins

Prominent crypto payments company Ripple makes a strategic move to stabilize the XRP market by re-locking 800M XRP in escrow shortly after releasing 1B coins.

According to Whale Alert, Ripple has re-locked 800 million units of XRP in escrow, accounting for 80% of the 1 billion XRP recently released from escrow.

Data shared by Whale Alert shows that Ripple re-locked the 800 million XRP in three different transactions, with each containing 500M, 200M, and 100M XRP apiece.

🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 500,000,000 #XRP (304,378,440 USD) locked in escrow at #Ripplehttps://t.co/0ggl3HjjeF

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) December 1, 2023

Details of the Transaction

A closer look at these transactions on XRP Scan shows that the 500M XRP coins were locked in escrow from one of Ripple’s addresses, tagged “Ripple 10.”

Additionally, Ripple locked 200 million XRP in escrow from another wallet named “Ripple 11.” The company sent the remaining 100 million XRP to its escrow account from the same “Ripple 11” address.

200M XRP Remains Liquid

The development comes hours after the leading blockchain company unlocked 1 billion XRP from its escrow account. With Ripple locking 800 million XRP in escrow, the leading blockchain company will keep the remaining 200M XRP for itself.

Ripple could deploy the 200M XRP into the market at any moment. As a customary practice, the potential sale of the 200M XRP will be done in a way that will not negatively impact the coin’s price.

Ripple’s decision to always re-lock 800M XRP from each 1B XRP monthly release is part of an effort to stabilize the XRP market.

According to CoinGecko data, XRP was changing hands at $0.61, up 1% over the past 24 hours at press time. XRP is still ranked as the fifth-largest cryptocurrency, with a market cap of $33.1 billion.

Ripple Now Holds 40.7B XRP in Escrow

With Ripple re-locking 800M XRP, the company’s escrow balance now stands at 40.7 billion XRP. Recall that in its Q3 2023 report, Ripple disclosed that it held 41.3 billion XRP in escrow as of September 30.

So far, the company has released 200M XRP each for three consecutive months, October, November, and December, thus bringing its escrow balance to 40.7B XRP.

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