Ripple released 1 billion XRP coins from custody on November 1st, completing the transaction in two parts, with each part valued at approximately 624 million US dollars. Although this action was in line with the company's established monthly schedule, it still attracted attention on social media.
The key points are as follows:
- Ripple released 1 billion XRP on November 1st through two transactions carried out as planned, with each transaction amounting to 500 million XRP.
- Blockchain trackers identified these two transactions as routine monthly custodial unlocks, despite claims on social media that there was abnormal activity.
- Ripple re-locked 700 million XRP in October, continuing the practice of returning unused tokens to custody.
- The initial reports did not confirm the re-locking of transactions in November, therefore the net release volume for that month is still unclear.
- Despite the attention on the transaction, XRP is still trading around $1.25, with a 0.08% increase over 24 hours.
According to the data from blockchain trackers KKapon and XRP Live, each transaction released 500 million XRP tokens, which were then transferred into wallets controlled by Ripple. The transfer was completed around UTC at 00:00:02, with the tokens being withdrawn from the existing custodial contract.
At the same time, these two transactions in November involved two Ripple custodial wallets, which are typically identified by trackers as Ripple 10 and Ripple 11.
Each of these two wallets received 500 million XRP, bringing the total amount released to 1 billion. Calculated at the price cited by the tracker, the total value is approximately 1.25 billion US dollars.
In another reminder, KKapon described the second release as part of the monthly hosting arrangements planned for Ripple.
XRP Ledger is released through the EscrowFinish transaction record management mechanism, which allows previously locked tokens to reach the designated recipient after meeting preset conditions.
Ripple established this system in December 2017, initially placing 55 billion XRP into the contract with the aim of gradually releasing a portion of the assets held therein each month.
The company explained that the unused tokens will re-enter a new custodial contract, thereby extending the release plan beyond the initial 55-month schedule.
As crypto.news previously explained in the hosting guidelines, monthly releases may involve multiple transactions, as the locked positions of Ripple are spread across multiple contracts.
For example, the release in September included three separate transactions: 500 million, 400 million, and 100 million XRP.
Therefore, these two equal transfers in November do not indicate any unexpected changes to the custody policy of Ripple.
Ripple will re-lock how many XRP back into custody?
Although a total of 1 billion XRP tokens were released this month, the exact number of Ripple tokens that will ultimately remain outside of custody is another question.
Historically, companies have re-placed most of the unlocked XRP into new time-locked contracts, rather than keeping all tokens available at all times.
In October, Ripple released 1 billion tokens, and then re-locked 700 million XRP tokens, resulting in a net reduction of 300 million tokens in the managed supply.
According to the analysis of the XRP Ledger transaction, the same pattern of 700 million coins being re-locked occurred again in September.
Previous reports regarding the release in September explained that the unlocking of custody does not automatically imply how much XRP will flow to exchanges or investors.
A ledger report dated November 1st indicates that as of UTC time 10:50, the tokens released in the latest round have not yet been placed into a new custodial contract.
At that time, the managed holdings under the control of Ripple were approximately 30.4 billion XRP.
If Ripple continues with the October pattern and returns 700 million tokens, then the net reduction in the locked supply in November will be 300 million XRP.
However, before the corresponding EscrowCreate transaction appears in the ledger, this number is still merely conditional.
Even the XRP that is kept outside of custody may still be in the company-controlled wallets. A single release does not necessarily indicate that the Ripple has sold or distributed these tokens.
After the unlocking of hosting, the price of XRP remained around $1.25.
Despite the high dollar value associated with Sunday's transactions, the price fluctuations of XRP remained limited.
According to the XRP price data of crypto.news, this cryptocurrency was reported at around $1.25 on November 1st, with a 0.08% increase over 24 hours.
Its intraday trading range remained between $1.25 and $1.26, with a reported trading volume of approximately $717 million.
In the past 7 days, the token has fallen by 2.89%; in the past month, it has fallen by 18.52%.
Previous analyses of the November outlook indicated that prices weakened in October, and at the beginning of the month, XRP once approached $1.49.
Cryptography analyst Xaif Crypto reports that the cumulative trading volume has shown a positive turnaround, indicating that buyers have begun to respond after selling earlier on.
However, the analyst described this change as a "short-term bullish shift, but not yet confirmed," and pointed out that a reversal would require continued buying pressure.
Meanwhile, as of November, there were no immediate exchange sell orders related to the released tokens in the managed transactions.
The next set of confirmed supply data will depend on the subsequent wallet transfers after Ripple, as well as any new managed contracts recorded on XRP Ledger.
