XRP’s distribution is now greater than half as Ripple’s escrow balance stands at under 50 billion

The year 2017 is well-remembered in the crypto-community as the ‘magical year’ that churned out many billionaires if not, generous returns against investments. XRP, which was once valued at $0.0063 in 2017,  sprung to the value of one dollar in December 2017, finally topping at $3.84 in the same year. At the time, Ripple had pledged 55 billion of a total 61.69 billion XRP allotted to them, in escrow.  Out of the total 99,991,355,092 XRP, Ripple owned 6,462,128,816 XRP, while 38,531,538,922* XRP were distributed.

Source: Hodor’s blog

Ripple established 55 contracts of 1 billion XRP that allowed the release of 1 billion XRP on the first day of every month. Keeping up with the contracts, the currency XRP reserves in the escrow have reached 49,400,000,013 XRP, at press time. Considering the amount held by Ripple [7,566,921,567] and the total XRP distributed [43,024,433,511*], it would be safe to say that more than 50% of the total XRP has been distributed.

Source: Ripple

However, ‘Ripple dumping XRP’ has been doing rounds in the ecosystem and these accusations don’t seem to be ceasing. After Ripple availed the 1 billion XRP released from escrow in September 2019, it moved 500 million XRP to another wallet from its escrow wallet. This acted as fuel to ongoing speculations about the San Francisco-based company trying to slam the price of the coin.

After the dubious movement, Ripple further transferred 100,000,000 XRP to Jed McCaleb, one of the founding members who left Ripple in 2014. McCaleb, who went on to form Stellar Lumens, held XRP worth $20 billion in early 2018, according to New York Times. Following his parting from Ripple, McCaleb signed an agreement with Ripple, assuring the community of not dumping the entirety of his holdings. Instead, he promised to do so in small amounts over time. With McCaleb no longer associated with Ripple, the community was taken aback with this transfer and the discussion over XRP’s price escalated.

XRP’s YTD return is noted to be -33.04%, while its inflation rate was sky-high at 27.89%. The market dominance of XRP has picked up the pace to 4.28%, but lags when compared to Bitcoin, which has a dominance of 69.59% in the cryptocurrency market. Despite several partnerships, the price of XRP has not seen a rise. Instead, it is slumping further. With multiple crests and troughs in the market, the price of XRP noted a meager rise and was valued at $0.2533 with a market cap of $11.09 billion, at press time.