In 2025, Ripple continued one of the cryptocurrency market’s most scrutinized practices of monthly unlocking of XRP from escrow and the partial relocking of those tokens to manage supply.

The system is a programmed supply mechanism designed to balance liquidity, ecosystem needs, and price stability as new tokens enter the market.

Notably, XRP has a fixed supply of 100 billion tokens, all pre-mined at launch. To manage circulation, Ripple placed about 55 billion XRP in time-locked escrow, unlocking one billion tokens per month in batches. 

Most of each release is relocked, with only 20% to 40%  used for operations, partnerships, institutional demand, or broader ecosystem needs.

Escrow data from 2025 shows that roughly 12 billion XRP was unlocked over the year, averaging one billion per month. Most of this was relocked, typically around 700 million XRP monthly, leaving about 300 million XRP per month outside escrow.

Value of XRP dumped in market

In total, this added roughly 3.6 billion XRP to the market. At a current XRP price of $1.90, that supply equates to approximately $6.8 billion in value.

At the same time, claims that Ripple is aggressively dumping XRP assume that all unlocked tokens are immediately sold on exchanges, an interpretation not supported by the data.

Most tokens are either relocked or directed toward operational uses such as On-Demand Liquidity or institutional partnerships. Market reactions to the monthly unlocks in 2025 have generally been modest and short-lived, with minimal impact on XRP price. 

Analysts note that the predictability of the escrow schedule limits surprise selling pressure as the asset has been mainly traded in tandem with the broader market sentiment.

Featured image via Shutterstock