Ripple escrow: Unraveling the mystery

Asia

A bit of mystery and A LOT of misinformation has been going around regarding Ripple’s escrow. This article will unravel any mystery surrounding Ripple’s escrow holdings.

What is an escrow?

Escrow is a feature of the XRP Ledger that allows you to send conditional XRP payments. These conditional payments, called escrows, set aside XRP and deliver it later when certain conditions are met. Conditions to successfully finish an escrow include time-based unlocks and crypto-conditions.

The XRP set aside in an escrow is locked up. No one can use or destroy the XRP until the escrow has been successfully finished.

Ripple’s initial escrow creation

In December 2017, Ripple created 55 escrows, 1 billion XRP each. Every month, one of these 1 billion escrows would expire, returning the 1 billion XRP to Ripple. Ripple could then use that XRP or return a certain amount to a new escrow.

Ripple’s escrow release history

This is a table showing the release of Ripple’s escrow every month and the amount returned to escrow. In 29 months, Ripple has released 29 billion XRP, of which, 23.4 billion went back into escrow. Ripple has re-escrowed 807 million XRP every month, on average so far.

Date
ending
Amount Released (XRP) Amount Returned to escrow Cumulative XRP in escrow
Jan 18 1,000,000,000 0 54,000,000,000
Feb 18 1,000,000,000 900,000,000 53,900,000,000
Mar 18 1,000,000,000 900,000,000 53,800,000,000
Apr 18 1,000,000,000 900,000,000 53,700,000,000
May 18 1,000,000,000 900,000,000 53,600,000,000
Jun 18 1,000,000,000 900,000,000 53,500,000,000
Jul 18 1,000,000,000 900,000,000 53,400,000,000
Aug 18 1,000,000,000 900,000,000 53,300,000,000
Sep 18 1,000,000,000 800,000,000 53,100,000,000
Oct 18 1,000,000,000 800,000,000 52,900,000,000
Nov 18 1,000,000,000 800,000,000 52,700,000,000
Dec 18 1,000,000,000 800,000,000 52,500,000,000
Jan 19 1,000,000,000 800,000,000 52,300,000,000
Feb 19 1,000,000,000 800,000,000 52,100,000,000
Mar 19 1,000,000,000 700,000,000 51,800,000,000
Apr 19 1,000,000,000 700,000,000 51,500,000,000
May 19 1,000,000,000 700,000,000 51,200,000,000
Jun 19 1,000,000,000 700,000,000 50,900,000,000
Jul 19 1,000,000,000 700,000,000 50,600,000,000
Aug 19 1,000,000,000 800,000,000 50,400,000,000
Sep 19 1,000,000,000 800,000,000 50,200,000,000
Oct 19 1,000,000,000 800,000,000 50,000,000,000
Nov 19 1,000,000,000 900,000,000 49,900,000,000
Dec 19 1,000,000,000 1,000,000,000 49,900,000,000
Jan 20 1,000,000,000 900,000,000 49,800,000,000
Feb 20 1,000,000,000 900,000,000 49,700,000,000
Mar 20 1,000,000,000 900,000,000 49,600,000,000
Apr 20 1,000,000,000 900,000,000 49,500,000,000
May 20 1,000,000,000 900,000,000 49,400,000,000
29,000,000,000 23,400,000,000

When Ripple first escrowed the 55 billion XRP, it used 11 different wallets, each holding 5 billion XRP in escrows. At the time of writing, 5 of the initial wallets have 0 XRP escrowed in them, while 6 new wallets have been created.

Escrow wallets Amount of XRP in escrow
r9NpyVfLfUG8hatuCCHKzosyDtKnBdsEN3 0
r9UUEXn3cx2seufBkDa8F86usfjWM6HiYp 0
rB3WNZc45gxzW31zxfXdkx8HusAhoqscPn 0
rDdXiA3M4mYTQ4cFpWkVXfc2UaAXCFWeCK 0
rKDvgGUsNPZxsgmoemfrgXPS2Not4co2op 0
rN8pqRwLYuuvY7pUHurybPC8P6rLqVsu6o 3,000,000,000
rKwJaGmB5Hz24Qs2iyCaTdUuL1WsEXUWy5 3,000,000,000
rU9qmGM4Y6WWDhiNzkwVKBwwatcoE7YL1T 5,000,000,000
rNASJdZjY9dToHnNURi3HAUku3duPwbtD1 5,000,000,000
rfWPPQBYqYmoFMdVnjzXCagJbz5uajSBXL 5,000,000,000
rh2EsAe2xVE71ZBjx7oEL2zpD4zmSs3sY9 5,000,000,000
rhEwsCWDCVxDiKxGJAKM6VuXC8EFtJP5gQ 5,000,000,000
rncKvRcdDq9hVJpdLdTcKoxsS3NSkXsvfM 5,000,000,000
rp6aTJmW3nq1aKt3Jmuz4DPRxksT5PBjpH 5,000,000,000
rsjFB8mPWqiZgPUaVh8XYqdfa59PE2d5LG 5,000,000,000
rw2hzLZgiQ9q62KCuaTWuFHWfiX7JWg3wY 1,900,000,000
rDqGA2GfveHypDguQ1KXrJzYymFZmKxEsF 1,500,000,000
49,400,000,000

Besides spreading its escrow to different wallets, each holding a maximum of 5 billion XRP, Ripple also makes sure that every month, a maximum of 1 billion XRP is in escrow. This applies to any new escrows Ripple creates.

Currently, the last escrow ends in July 2024. Starting from June 2020, up until June 2024, in each month a total of 1 billion XRP in escrow will end. In July 2024, currently, there are 400 million XRP escrowed. Next month when Ripple creates new escrows, it will escrow 600 million XRP ending in the month of July 2024 and the rest for August 2024. This will go on for some time now.

You can view all the escrows on our escrow page.

Ripple’s XRP sales

Ripple has been very transparent as far as its sales are concerned. Every quarter it publishes a quarterly report that shows exactly how much XRP Ripple sold during that timeframe. As you can see in the graph below, Ripple’s sales (in USD) were the most from Q3 2018 to Q2 2019.

Genesis Championship
Image source: TheBlock

Toward the end of Q2 2019, Ripple announced that it would start using a different approach to XRP volume reporting and that it would take a more conservative approach to XRP sales. Indeed, in the last three quarters, Ripple’s sales appear to be significantly lower.

Conclusion

Whenever you see a news outlet claiming that Ripple is about to dump 1 billion XRP, you should know that that is never the case. Ripple has maintained a very conservative approach with maximum transparency.

As mentioned in the Q4 2019 report, Ripple continues to focus solely on its over-the-counter (OTC) sales with a few strategic partners, who are building XRP utility and liquidity in strategic regions including EMEA and Asia. 

Ripple is determined to get more RippleNet members on On-Demand Liquidity and XRP, and it is taking all the necessary steps to achieve that.

The post Ripple escrow: Unraveling the mystery appeared first on XRPArcade.

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