Ripple Could Sell Over 96 Million XRP as 2023 Ends

Ripple, the well-known cryptocurrency payment firm, has been utilising a significant portion of the tokens released from escrow.

As 2023 approaches its end, Ripple could sell more than 96 million XRP coins currently stored in its primary wallet address.

Ripple Spends 240M XRP in December

Established in December 2017, Ripple’s escrow system releases 1 billion XRP monthly.

In a strategic move to stabilise the XRP market, Ripple routinely re-locks 80% (800M) of the 1B XRP back into escrow. The remaining 20% (200M) XRP coins are directed to the company’s primary wallet, labelled “Ripple 1.”

An intriguing aspect unfolds as the company disperses these tokens to various unlabeled addresses before routing them to centralised exchanges. They are subjected to blind bid/ask transactions, forming part of Ripple’s intricate market strategies.

In a regular procedure for December 2023, Ripple transferred 200M XRP from the 1B coins to its main account. This came from one of its wallet addresses labelled “Ripple 22.”

Post-transaction, the spending wallet held a balance of 336,340,276 (336.34 million) XRP as of December 1. Subsequently, spending transactions totalled 240M XRP in three tranches.

The first expenditure took place on December 6, 2023. It involved the transfer of 60M XRP to an unlabeled address. Another 60M XRP was sent to the same unlabeled address six days later.

Additionally, on December 20, the company sent 120M XRP to the same address, culminating in a total spending of 240M XRP (equivalent to $148.8 million) from the “Ripple 1” wallet this month.

Remaining XRP Balance

Following the expenditure of 240M XRP in December, Ripple’s primary spending wallet retains a balance of 96,340,276 (96.34 million) XRP. At $0.62 per coin, the total value of XRP in the Ripple 1 wallet amounts to $59.73 million.

Ripple holds the discretion to sell these coins before the year concludes or retain them in the wallet for the upcoming year. Should they decide to liquidate the 96.34 million XRP, market analysts anticipate that the company can execute this move without causing a detrimental impact on the XRP price.

Ripple: Locked XRP in Escrow

Despite having 96.34 million liquid XRP in its spending address, Ripple’s escrow account maintains a reserve of 40.7 billion XRP.

The ongoing plan involves unlocking hundreds of millions of these coins from escrow, a process set to continue until 2027. Initially, the company intended to release 1 billion XRP from the 55 billion tokens locked in escrow for 55 months.

However, due to the practice of re-locking hundreds of millions of XRP in escrow after each successful unlock, Ripple opted to extend the deadline for this process, which is now set to conclude in 2027.

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