$1 Billion: Nearly 3 Billion XRP Moved in Past 24 Hours, Mostly from Ripple's Escrow Wallets

Omar Faridi

Nearly 3 billion XRP tokens were recently moved from what are known to be Ripple company's over-the-counter (OTC) and escrow wallets to “unknown wallets”, according to a Reddit post.

A Redditor with the username CL20 has pointed out that over $1 billion in XRP were shifted in separate transactions to different wallet addresses. The first transaction involved the transfer of 1,108,302,304 XRP, an amount valued at almost $400 million at press time, according to CryptoCompare data.

Billions of XRP Tranferred Between Multiple Wallets In Past 24 Hours 

Another 200 million XRP were moved (appr. $71 million) from Ripple company’s “escrow wallet to Ripple’s OTC distribution wallet”, reddit user CL20 noted. Additionally, 300 million XRP tokens (appr. $107 million) were shifted from an “unknown wallet” to another wallet whose owner has not yet been identified.

Several other XRP transactions followed as 500 million (appr. $178 million) more XRP were transferred from Ripple company’s escrow wallet to another unidentified wallet. As detailed in this reddit post, 500 million XRP were again shifted, but this time from one of Ripple Labs’ escrow wallets to an “unknown wallet.” Relatively smaller transfers of 7.4 million XRP and 10 million XRP were made to unknown wallets from Ripple’s OTC distribution wallet.

"Top Ranked" Ripple Reddit Community Member Brings Clarity To The Situation 

Commenting on the large transfers, reddit user RememberSLDL claimed he had been buying XRP tokens daily, presumably for investment purposes. The redditor asked “[what he] should do with this information”, implying that there may be a huge XRP selloff coming soon. However, a redditor with username  TyrantRex12 said:

Just like every month. Just escrow movement.

The reddit user’s comments suggest that Ripple Labs could just be moving the XRP tokens as part of a routine monthly procedure, which may be related to the maintenance of the company’s escrow accounts. According to redditor mikenard77, a “top ranked contributor” in Ripple’s reddit community: 

Follow the transactions, [as they] likely majority went back to escrow. They don’t need to wait for escrow on hand if they wanted to dump a good amount, they have several Billion not in escrow... if they did this, everyone involved in the network would pass an amendment to exclude the xrp ripple has from the supply. The juice would not be worth the squeeze. Ahh the glory of decentralization.

Mikenard77 further explained that if a large amount of XRP was actually dumped, then it would take at least “two weeks” in order to pass or approve an “amendment” (to dispute or address the large selloff) as this is a protocol requirement. He also wrote that “no one can freeze XRP.” Whether or not this is true remains unclear.

XRP Market Cap Drops Again To Third Place

Notably, the market capitalization of all XRP tokens is now at just over $15 billion, making it the third largest cryptocurrency (in terms of total market cap). As most crypto enthusiasts know, total XRP market cap had exceeded that of Ethereum’s native token, ether (ETH). The ether token however, recently reclaimed its second position, right behind bitcoin (BTC), the flagship cyptocurrency.