Ripple Surprisingly Unlocks 500M XRP from Escrow: Here’s Why

Ripple has uncharacteristically unlocked 500 million XRP from its escrow wallets in the middle of the month, sparking curiosity among market participants.

Notably, the blockchain payments firm typically unlocks 1 billion XRP from escrow on the first day of every month, a pattern it began in 2017 to facilitate a systematic release of XRP tokens. 

However, the latest escrow release, which amounted to 500 million XRP across two uneven transactions, occurred on April 12, eleven days later than expected. Whale-tracking platform Whale Alert called attention to this uncharacteristic escrow transaction in two disclosures on X.

The first transaction saw the release of 200 million XRP yesterday at 5:05 AM. The assets were worth $122.6 million at the time of the transaction. Interestingly, the recipient wallet, which belonged to Ripple, had been inactive since March 2021 before the recent transaction.

🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 200,000,000 #XRP (122,636,247 USD) unlocked from escrow at unknown wallethttps://t.co/8ckBMXkGbQ

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) April 12, 2024

The second transaction occurred four minutes after the first, involving the release of an additional 300 million XRP valued at $183.89 million at the time. This brought the cumulative amount to 500 million, with both transactions flowing to the same address. Ripple has not moved the tokens from the address as of press time.

🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 300,000,000 #XRP (183,898,502 USD) unlocked from escrow at unknown wallethttps://t.co/izibP482L4

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) April 12, 2024

Reason Behind the Surprising Twist

A look at the transactions reveals that these particular escrow releases were actually scheduled to be executed after April 1 at exactly midnight. For context, Ripple has automated these escrow unlocks for the network to release 1 billion XRP tokens across various addresses on the first day of every month.

However, some of these scheduled releases fail due to issues with the address meant to receive the tokens, while some encounter delays. Data confirms that the system delayed the recent two transactions, executing them 11 days after the schedule.

Recall that The Crypto Basic revealed earlier this month that Ripple unlocked only 500 million XRP from escrow on April 1. The latest unlocks complete the 1 billion quota. While some XRP community members speculated that these were early releases for May, they were in fact late releases for April.

Ripple Escrow Unlock Anomalies

Notably, shortly after releasing the earlier 500 million XRP from escrow, Ripple locked back 800 million tokens on April 1. The company has continued to lock back 800 million XRP every month even before the scheduled 1 billion tokens are completely released.

Interestingly, these delays and failures have persisted throughout this year. Last month, the network only released 500 million XRP but Ripple locked back 800 million tokens. 

In February, the network unlocked 600 million XRP at the start of the month and 400 million tokens on the 25th. The firm locked back 600 million XRP before receiving the 400 million. This year, Ripple has only witnessed the normal routine unlock schedule in January.