Ripple just released 1 billion XRP from escrow, worth roughly $1.49 billion at the time of the unlock. Don’t assume all of it is about to hit the market, though. Most months, most of it goes back.
This is the scheduled monthly release Ripple runs at the start of every month, and October’s came in four separate transactions flagged by an on-chain whale alert account. They broke down as 400,000,000 XRP worth $595,636,565 at the time of unlock, 200,000,000 XRP worth $297,818,282, 300,000,000 XRP worth $446,727,424 and 100,000,000 XRP worth $148,909,141.
The 1 billion figure is mostly theater
The headline number sounds alarming if you’re watching for sell pressure. It shouldn’t, at least not on its own.
Ripple has often sent a large chunk of each unlock, about 700 to 800 million XRP, straight back into escrow. Whatever remains goes to operational purposes, ecosystem initiatives and other activities. So the amount that ends up circulating is a fraction of what the alerts show.
That’s why the next 24 hours matter more than the unlock itself. The re-lock transaction is what tells you how much XRP Ripple kept this month.
What’s still locked up
Ledger explorer data puts total escrowed XRP at 31,845,130,805 XRP, or 31.9% of supply. Circulating supply stands at 68,126,080,636 XRP, which is 68.1% of the 100 billion XRP total.
Burned XRP is a rounding error by comparison. A total of 14,394,279 XRP has been destroyed so far, or 0.014% of supply.
The trend line is slow but clear. Escrow now holds 31.845 billion XRP, down from over 32.4 billion XRP reported months back.
The ledger is busier than the escrow story suggests
The more interesting numbers this week aren’t about Ripple's treasury. Over 10 million x402 payments have now settled on the XRP Ledger, less than three months after the network crossed 1 million.
AI agents paying for inference and data still dominate that volume, RippleX head of engineering JA Akinyele said. But Akinyele said a broader range of x402 services is starting to appear across financial data, risk, credit and other agent APIs. The latest seven-day run rate is 500,000 payments per day.
Brazil is also moving real securities onto the ledger. Central securities depository CSD BR is recording securities ownership on a public blockchain for the first time, on the XRP Ledger. It’s partnering with Ripple to bring Brazil’s regulated capital markets onchain, starting with BTG Pactual fund shares secured by Ripple Custody.
One vote stands in the way of XRPL lending
Validators are now voting on LendingProtocolV1_1. The amendment introduces closed-ended vaults and cash-basis accounting for XRPL lending.
It also has to activate before the Lending Protocol and Single Asset Vault amendments can go forward. If you’re tracking when lending goes live on the XRP Ledger, that vote matters more to you than this month’s escrow unlock.
If you’re watching the unlock for supply reasons, look for the re-lock transaction before you react. A 700 million XRP return would leave Ripple with 300 million to spend, and that’s the number worth trading on.
