Prominent blockchain company Ripple, well-known for its fintech innovations, has released an additional 1 billion XRP coins from its escrow account, as reported by the leading crypto whale tracking service, Whale Alert.
Unlocking 1 Billion XRP
Whale Alert’s data reveals that on October 1, exactly at 00:00 (UTC), Ripple unlocked 1 billion XRP through three separate transactions. The first transaction involved the release of 500 million XRP valued at $299.9 million from the escrow account.
This was followed by another release of 400 million XRP, amounting to approximately $239.92 million.
The final transaction saw 100 million XRP, worth $59.98 million, unlocked from the escrow account.
Related article: XRP Price Glitch on Crypto Exchanges Sets it at $5,805
Ripple’s XRP Movement
Interestingly, these transactions followed a previous transfer of 50 million XRP from one of Ripple’s accounts to an undisclosed address, occurring on October 1 at 23:26 (UTC).
After this transaction, Ripple’s address held 166.34 million XRP, while the recipient address maintained a balance of 54.72 million XRP.
Ripple Monthly Token Unlock Program
The release of 1 billion XRP from escrow is part of Ripple’s routine token unlock program conducted on the first day of each month. The leading blockchain company introduced this initiative in December 2017 to enhance stability in the XRP markets.
At that time, Ripple established an escrow system on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) containing 55 billion XRP. This system was programmed to release a minimum of 1 billion XRP coins each month for 55 months.
To mitigate XRP price volatility, Ripple took a more cautious approach by relocking a significant portion of the 1 billion XRP released each month. Typically, the company returns up to 800 million XRP from the monthly release of 1 billion XRP.
As of now, Ripple has not relocked any portion of the recently released 1 billion XRP.
Related also: Ripple (XRP) Price Forecast: Excessive or Within Reach?
XRP Q3 Market Report
Ripple has also published its market report for Q3 2023. According to the report, a significant event in Q3 was the historic 40% volatility in XRP’s value on July 13, following a federal court’s declaration that XRP is not a security.
The report highlights Binance as the dominant player in the XRP market during Q3 2023, accounting for 60% of the total XRP trading volumes across exchanges in the preceding quarter.
Notably, XRP trading volume on the XRPL decentralized exchange witnessed a threefold increase in Q3 2023. The trading volume in this decentralized exchange reached an impressive $218.61 million, up from $51.67 million in the previous quarter. Additionally, the number of new XRP addresses surged by 13.91% in Q3, totalling 157,936.
Total XRP Held in Escrow
According to Ripple’s Q3 report, as of September 30, approximately 41.3 billion XRP were locked in Ripple’s escrow account. On October 1, the company unlocked 1 billion XRP tokens from the escrow account and subsequently relocked 800 million coins. Consequently, Ripple now maintains approximately 40.1 billion XRP in escrow.
The question remains whether some of the recently released XRP coins will be returned to escrow in the future.
