Ripple is the largest XRP holder, with most of its holdings so far locked in escrows until 2027. Every month, 1 billion tokens are unlocked and managed by the company, arbitrarily re-locking or keeping its desired share.
In December, Ripple kept 200 million XRP (20%) and re-locked the rest in escrows set for April and May 2027. The crypto wallet account holding its available reserves is labeled as ‘Ripple (1)’ by XRP Scan.
Usually, the company sends to this account what it wants to keep each month, later paying an unlabeled address. Which then routes the amount to a series of other unlabeled addresses, likely controlled by the same owner, until the XRP tokens reach centralized exchanges.
In most months, Ripple will spend the entire unlocked amount. In others, the company will sell just a part of it, keeping the rest in its reserves.
Ripple already spent 240 million XRP in December
However, Ripple has already spent 240 million XRP out of the 200 million unlocked in December. This means that the company is using part of the accumulated reserves in 2023 to dump before the year ends.
Notably, the sales have occurred in three batches after receiving the 200 million XRP from ‘Ripple (22)’ on December 1. First, spending 60 million on December 6, followed by another 60 million six days later.
Most recently, Ripple consolidated its over-spending with a 120 million XRP transaction on December 20 to the same destination.
Interestingly, Ripple’s account still has 96.34 million of liquid XRP left behind, which can be dumped at any moment. This amount equates to $57.87 million, considering the XRP traded price of $0.62 per token by press time.
However, it is only up to Ripple to sell all its unlocked reserves or keep them for the new year. So far, December’s whole sales are worth $148.80 million, directly absorbed by the company and its shareholders.
These sales constitute XRP’s supply inflation, as the unlocked tokens start circulating each month. Essentially, Ripple can directly affect the economic dynamics of its token and its future price and value, as previously reported by Finbold.
Disclaimer: The content on this site should not be considered investment advice. Investing is speculative. When investing, your capital is at risk.
