Exactly 1 billion XRP tokens were unlocked from escrow accounts on the first day of the year. While such occurrences are considered commonplace and usual for many in the XRP community, this time it was not without surprises. If previously XRP was unlocked directly from Ripple escrows, this time, according to Whale Alert, it happened in unknown accounts.
However, Bithomp identifies these addresses as Ripple's, each of which currently holds 1 billion XRP. The same tokens that were unlocked today are still in the wallets and have not yet been redirected to exchanges or other ODL sites.
What's all fuss about Ripple's XRP escrows?
As reported by U.Today, by unlocking XRP from its escrows each month, Ripple aims to bring predictability to the XRP offering when the token is directly used by the company in its transactions. While initially 55% of the 100 billion XRP supply was locked in such accounts, that number has now fallen to 42.7%.
Most of the tokens are now on the market. At the same time, according to XRPArcade, only 184 million tokens, on average, remain on the market out of the monthly release of 1 billion XRP from escrow.
Overall, an upward trend is evident in the present amount of XRP on the market, with Ripple recording net sales of a combined $718 million, according to its last two quarterly reports.