Chris Larsen’s 2.75B XRP Could Soon Support Ripple ODL as Supply Tightens

Amid a drop in XRP’s market supply, a pundit speculates that Ripple Chairman Chris Larsen’s 2.75 billion XRP could go into supporting ODL (now Ripple Payments).

XRPWallets, a community-driven X account dedicated to tracking flows around ODL, discussed this in a recent post. Notably, the latest commentary came on the back of the gradual movements of the XRP tokens transferred from one of Larsen’s wallets last month.

Chris Larsen Moves 50M XRP

Recall that The Crypto Basic confirmed in mid-September that the Larsen address moved out 50 million XRP. This transaction was noteworthy, as it marked the first significant outflow from the wallet since its activation eleven years ago.

Some commentators suggested the transaction could be a product of a security breach, but The Crypto Basic debunked this, citing data from on-chain movements. Shortly after, the recipient of the 50 million XRP tokens began shuffling the assets, eventually sending 20 million to exchanges.

XRPWallets had continued to track the remaining assets, confirming that more XRP tokens had moved to exchanges since then. Now, on-chain data shows that only 5 million tokens remain, following the recent movement of 10 million XRP to Binance. 

Interestingly, these movements contribute to the sustained reduction of XRP supply in the open market, a trend that the XRPWallets account has continued to track. Notably, the resource has observed that Ripple persistently purchases XRP from the open market to power its Ripple Payments (ODL) service.

Ripple Buys XRP for ODL

For context, Ripple has confirmed that it typically buys back XRP from the open secondary market to leverage it as a bridge asset for cross-border settlements. The Crypto Basic revealed in January that about 50% of Ripple’s ODL transactions use XRP. 

Meanwhile, following its partnership with Ripple for Payment services, U.S.-based crypto exchange Uphold also stressed that it would purchase XRP from the open market for these services. 

Amid the increase in XRP purchases from the secondary market, XRPWallets speculates that XRP could continue to witness drying supply in the open market.

As this pattern plays out, the tracking resource suggests that Ripple could turn to Larsen’s XRP holdings as the source of XRP tokens for its ODL service. However, it is important to note that this remains speculative at press time, with no official confirmation.

Only 5M remains from Larsen’s initial 50M. 10M was sent to Binance.

As we anticipate the reduction of Open Market XRP available for Ripple to purchase and send to ODL, one of our markers is Larsens 2.75B XRP could be a viable source of XRP for ODL in the near future. https://t.co/46WkPJ6Wx0

— XRP_Liquidity (Larsen/ODL Tracking) (@XRPwallets) October 18, 2024

It bears mentioning that the Ripple co-founders, including Larsen, received a portion of the XRP supply from the outset. While Jed McCaleb has emptied his balance, others like Larsen have continued to HODL most of their tokens. 

Notably, data from XRPScan indicates that Larsen currently holds 2.75 billion XRP across six different wallets. Four of these wallets each hold 500 million XRP, while the fifth one possesses 450 million tokens, after transferring out the 50 million XRP last month. The sixth address holds 300 million tokens.