Ripple’s Unexpected Move: Locking 800 Million XRP in Strategic Escrow
Ripple, a prominent player in the world of cryptocurrency payments, recently made a strategic move in its token management strategy by locking 800 million XRP in its escrow accounts. This action took place across three transactions on March 1, as reported by Whale Alerts.
In the first of these transactions, 100 million XRP, valued at $59.48 million, were locked, followed by another 200 million XRP, worth $118.94 million, in the escrow wallet. At the same time, Ripple secured the final batch for March 2024, totaling 500 million XRP, with a value of $297.65 million.
This move by Ripple marks a deviation from its usual practice of unlocking 1 billion XRP on the first day of each month, followed by locking back 800 million XRP in escrow across three transactions. By only unlocking 500 million XRP on March 1, Ripple has raised doubts within the crypto community about its strategy.
It is worth noting that the initial report by Whale Alert did not capture Ripple’s token unlock of 1 billion XRP. However, further analysis revealed that 500 million XRP were indeed unlocked on March 1. Additionally, an attempted unlock of a significant amount of XRP the day before failed due to a transaction error.
Experts are now speculating whether Ripple will unlock the remaining 500 million XRP later in the month to complete the scheduled release of 1 billion tokens. This situation mirrors a previous incident in February, where Ripple faced a similar issue but resolved it before the end of the month.
Pro-XRP lawyer Bill Morgan has weighed in on the matter, providing insights into Ripple’s escrow locks and shaping market sentiment. The recent increase in trading of Ripple-backed XRP coincides with the company’s significant token lock, sparking debate. Morgan also highlights that derivatives data has fueled speculation on XRP’s recent rise past $0.62, drawing global attention.
As we await Ripple’s next move, the way in which XRP tokens are locked and unlocked provides valuable insight into their management. Ripple’s actions in the coming days will have an impact on market sentiment and will reveal their plans for distributing XRP.