Ripple will release 1 billion XRP tokens from its monthly escrow tomorrow, continuing a long-standing program that parcels out pre-allocated tokens in scheduled tranches.

As of press time, XRP trades at $2.85, with a 24-hour volume of $5.02 billion, up nearly 19%. The token commands a market capitalization of $172.88 billion, meaning the upcoming 1 billion unlock carries a notional value of roughly $2.85 billion.

That figure is more theatre than liquidity: it assumes every XRP token can be sold at once without moving the market, which is never how these unlocks work.

Ripple escrow wallets

The release will come from Ripple’s escrow wallets, a system introduced in 2017 to address long-running concerns about supply centralization. Ripple locked 55 billion XRP into a series of cryptographically secured accounts, programmed to release 1 billion XRP each month. Any unused portion is typically returned to escrow, extending the schedule further into the future.

This structure was designed to provide transparency, but in practice it also fuels ritualised speculation: every month, traders eye the clock, whisper about incoming “supply shocks,” and then watch as Ripple quietly returns much of it back into escrow.

What makes tomorrow’s tranche stand out is the whale behaviour. Data shows that large holders scooped up nearly 900 million XRP in just two days, suggesting some of the market’s biggest players are front-running retail fears around the unlock.

Meanwhile, the XRP Ledger’s EVM sidechain continues to quietly gather momentum. Total value locked (TVL) on the network has now crossed $105 million, underscoring early institutional interest in Ripple’s bid to marry traditional finance with DeFi rails.

All in all, it’s unlikely tomorrow’s release sparks volatility, but rather simply gets swallowed like the rest.