Lead Ripple Dev Explains XRP Burn Spike as 247,000 Tokens Gone

In a recent revelation by the Twitter account 24HRSCRYPTO, data from the XRP Ledger explorer unveiled a significant drop in XRP’s total supply over the past 30 days. Approximately 247,016 XRP tokens have been permanently burned and removed from circulation during this period, at an average rate of about 8,233 tokens per day.

Neil Hartner, a senior staff software engineer at Ripple, took to Twitter to clarify the cause behind this unexpected XRP burn spike. He attributed the reduction in supply to a series of account deletions on the XRP Ledger network, where each deletion resulted in the burning of two XRP tokens.

This is mostly the result of XRPL account deletions. Each account deletion burns 2 XRP. In June 2023, Poloniex alone deleted 85,566 old XRPL accounts which burned 171,132 XRP. They have finished deleting accounts. https://t.co/07M1IpGkYw https://t.co/cA5mVUVbGR

— Neil Hartner (@illneil) July 5, 2023

Hartner further disclosed that these account deletions were primarily focused on old accounts that previously held a balance of 20 XRP, which was the previous account reserve amount.

XRP enthusiasts and investors have been intrigued by the sudden decrease in the total supply of the cryptocurrency. Some speculate that such a substantial burn could have a potential impact on the token’s value, while others view it as a sign of network optimization.

One notable event contributing to this phenomenon was Poloniex’s actions in June 2023. The cryptocurrency exchange giant reportedly deleted a staggering 85,566 outdated XRPL accounts, resulting in a massive burn of 171,132 XRP tokens. 

However, according to the Ripple engineer, this process has now been completed, indicating that the account deletions are unlikely to continue on the same scale for the foreseeable future.