XRP Price Dips After Ripple Relocked 800M Following 500M Escrow Unlock

The San Francisco-based blockchain payment company Ripple has relocked 800 million XRP tokens in its escrow account. The action came after it released 500 million XRP from an escrow wallet some hours earlier.

Since February this year, Ripple deviated from its usual monthly token unlock of 1 billion XRP from escrow. The shocking thing is that even after locking more tokens than released, the XRP price still tanked.

Details of Ripple’s Recent Token Movements From Escrow

According to data from the on-chain tracker Whale Alert, Ripple executed two transactions posted on the X platform. The data revealed that the blockchain payment firm relocked 400 million XRP tokens in each transaction, amounting to 800 million coins.

🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 400,000,000 #XRP (243,872,155 USD) locked in escrow at #Ripplehttps://t.co/lj6LbX2rEj

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) April 1, 2024

On-chain details showed that in the first transaction, Ripple released 400 million XRP from its wallet tagged “Ripple 12.” Based on the current market price, these unlocked tokens are worth about $243,872,155.

The second transaction came two minutes later as the firm moved another 400 million XRP from its “Ripple 13” wallet. According to the current crypto market prices, the two transactions are worth over $487.57 million. 

Ripple locked 55 billion XRP coins in its escrow wallets to control the token’s circulating supply.

Usually, the blockchain firm unlocks 1 billion XRP tokens each month from its escrow account. However, the firm deviated from its initial practice by releasing less than 1 billion XRP over the past few months.

Since February, Ripple has not maintained its pattern of unlocking 1 billion XRP on the first day of the month. In February, the firm only unlocked 600 million XRP coins and never completed the process till the month ended.

Likewise, March saw the same trend from the company. Ripple released 500 million XRP tokens in the first of the month and failed to complete the usual 1 billion amount.

This month, Ripple released 500 million XRP and relocked 800 million XRP tokens on the same day. However, XRP price has not shown impressive performance within the past few days following these activities.

XRP Price Reacts Negatively Amid Ripple’s Recent Unlocking And Relocking Activities

According to data from CoinMarketCap, XRP has slipped below the $0.6000 threshold. Moreover, its market cap now hovers around $32.17 billion. This value has pushed the token to seventh place in CMC’s ranking of cryptocurrencies. 

Meanwhile, Ripple’s recent pattern of activities triggered several reactions within the crypto community. However, pro-XRP attorney Bill Morgan, reacting to the trend, stated that the 500 million XRP-tokens from Ripple’s escrow are a normal routine. 

Also, he suggested the firm may complete the full amount as Ripple sometimes unlocks 1 billion through two separate transactions.