American crypto payment firm Ripple has locked back 800 million XRP tokens in its escrow wallet despite deviating from its usual token release schedule.
Whale Alert recently documented Ripple’s latest escrow transactions via two posts on X. Specifically, in these transactions, Ripple relocked 400 million XRP in two separate movements, totaling 800 million tokens.
🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 400,000,000 #XRP (243,872,155 USD) locked in escrow at #Ripplehttps://t.co/lj6LbX2rEj
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) April 1, 2024
Ripple executed the first transaction on April 1 at 02:22 (UTC), locking 400 million XRP in the wallet labeled “Ripple 12.” Less than two minutes later, the second transaction took place, with another 400 million XRP locked in the wallet “Ripple 13.” At the time of the executions, the transactions were worth a cumulative $487,578,258.
Ripple Deviates From Escrow Unlock Pattern
Notably, Ripple returned these 800 million XRP tokens to escrow about 12 hours after unlocking just 500 million XRP. Typically, Ripple’s monthly escrow execution, scheduled for the first day of each month, releases 1 billion tokens. However, Ripple’s escrow releases have followed an irregular pattern since February.
In February, Ripple initially released 600 million XRP but postponed executing the remaining 400 million until the end of the month. Similarly, in March, the company unlocked only 500 million XRP, failing to complete the expected 1 billion escrow execution for that month.
In both instances, a failed transaction occurred at the initial escrow execution, which is believed to have impeded the completion of the escrow process. However, for April, there were no recorded failed escrow transactions.
So far this year, only January has witnessed Ripple’s characteristic escrow unlock pattern. It remains uncertain whether Ripple will follow the pattern observed in February by releasing an additional 500 million XRP for April to complete the customary 1 billion release.
Despite unlocking fewer XRP tokens than usual for the month, Ripple has consistently returned 800 million XRP to the escrow wallet.
Impact on XRP
Over the past 24 hours, XRP’s price has crashed below the $0.6 threshold and reached a low of $0.5935. This represents approximately a 4% price drop from the intraday high of $0.6172.
Ripple locking back a more substantial amount of XRP after unlocking 500 million has not saved the asset. Nonetheless, it is worth mentioning that XRP’s price decline mirrors the broader bearish market trend spearheaded by Bitcoin.
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