Ripple Unlocks 1B XRP From Escrow as XRP Slips from $0.48

As usual, Ripple starts the month unlocking 1 billion XRP in two equal transactions of 500 million XRP each.

Ripple has unlocked 1 billion XRP tokens from escrow as part of its monthly practice. The two transactions, highlighted by whale-tracking resource Whale Alert, each involved 500 million XRP concurrently released by the preprogrammed escrow unlock system at midnight today.

Whale Alert highlighted both transactions at once. The first transaction was named “Escrow Execution #18,” It unlocked 500 million XRP to a Ripple account. After the assets were sent to the Ripple account, the balance on the account amounted to 1 billion XRP.

🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 500,000,000 #XRP (234,797,873 USD) unlocked from escrow at unknown wallethttps://t.co/dqovURpEO7

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) May 1, 2023

The second transaction is a mirror reflection of the first one. The transaction, “Escrow Execution #21,” released the funds to another Ripple account, leading to a final balance of 1 billion XRP.

🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 500,000,000 #XRP (234,797,873 USD) unlocked from escrow at unknown wallethttps://t.co/fFhMl9ZQHn

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) May 1, 2023

Each batch of 500 million XRP was worth $234.8 million XRP at the time of the escrow execution, amounting to $469.6 million for both.

Ripple ODL

Ripple is expected to move these funds to provide liquidity for its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) partners and exchanges. However, the unlocked assets are still in the Ripple-affiliated accounts as of press time. 

Once they are moved to meet demands for XRP liquidity, the leftover assets will be moved back into escrow, as is the usual pattern. The company locked 600 million XRP back into escrow in February after releasing 1 billion tokens for the month.

Notably, Ripple typically sells the unlocked funds to ODL partners while it purchases XRP from the free market for its operations. As previously reported by The Crypto Basic, the California-based technology firm Ripple sold $2.93 billion worth of XRP to its ODL partners across the three months in Q1 2023. The company had a net sale of $361 million within this period.

The Ripple XRP escrow system is designed to lock up a certain amount of XRP in a smart contract for a predetermined time, thus creating a predictable and stable supply of XRP in the market. The firm has been unlocking 1 billion XRP every month since 2018, except for a pause in November 2022.

XRP Slips Below $0.48

Meanwhile, the latest transactions have come up when XRP is battling to reclaim the $0.48 territory after slipping below it yesterday. Following the market-wide turbulence, XRP aimed to reconquer $0.50, but the asset faces stern resistance at $0.48.

XRP is trading for $0.4655 as of press time, down 2.18% in the past 24 hours. The asset has leveraged the $0.46 zone as support to mitigate chances of further declines to the April 26 low of $0.44.