Ripple Releases 500M XRP from Escrow as Price Revisits $0.50

Ripple recently witnessed the release of 500 million XRP from escrow to accommodate the needs of May. This release comes at a time of price volatility for XRP. The transaction took place today at 02:15 AM (UTC), as per the standard procedures for escrow unlocks. The execution was initiated by OffEscrowerOfDai, an account known for its unusual memos.
Interestingly, the recipient address also received 500 million XRP from last month’s escrow execution but chose to hold onto the tokens until now. As a result, after the latest release, the address now holds 1 billion XRP, valued at over $500 million.
On-chain data reveals that this address still retains 4 billion XRP in escrow, which will be released every month until January 2025. Overall, Ripple currently has 39 billion XRP tokens locked across eight escrow wallets, accounting for 39% of XRP’s total supply.
It is worth noting that the recent escrow unlocks, involving the release of only 500 million tokens, deviate from the typical procedure, which has been observed throughout the year. While the escrow execution process schedules the release of 1 billion XRP on the first day of each month, there have been deviations from this schedule.
Last month, only 500 million XRP were released on the first day, followed by another batch of 500 million tokens unlocked on April 12. In March, only 500 million XRP tokens were released, with an error encountered during the second transaction meant to unlock the remaining tokens. In February, 600 million XRP were released on the first day of the month, followed by 400 million tokens on Feb. 25. January is the only month that has followed the standard procedure of escrow release this year, with Ripple continuing to lock back 800 million XRP each month.
It is important to note that although Ripple programmed the escrow wallets to unlock 1 billion tokens on the first day of each month at midnight, these releases only occur when triggered by an external party. Sometimes, these parties fail to execute the transactions, resulting in delays.
Meanwhile, XRP is currently facing a battle to maintain the psychological support level of $0.50 amidst market volatility. Following reports of a U.S. court sentencing Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao to four months in prison, Bitcoin dropped below $60,000, dragging the rest of the market down with it.
Despite this, XRP has held up relatively well in the past 24 hours, trading at $0.5020. While Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) have seen declines of 5.54% and 5.94% respectively, XRP has only experienced a 2.69% decline during the same period. Additionally, Solana (SOL) has fallen 8.22%, and Dogecoin (DOGE) has slumped 8.52%.
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