Ripple is XRP’s largest holder and core entity in its development, directly linked to the token’s creation and initial distribution. On March 1, Saturday, Ripple will unlock 1 billion XRP that has not yet been put in circulation, impacting markets.
Precisely, the unlock has a nominal value of $2.03 billion at current prices and could create significant selling pressure. However, activity from previous months hints that the company may only sell a fraction of the 1 billion XRP.
When XRP was launched in 2012, Ripple kept 80 billion of the supply out of circulation to itself, gradually selling some units, distributing it to the market. In 2017, the company implemented an escrow system to lock the still undistributed 55 billion XRP, with programmed monthly unlocks.
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This system remains to these days, as Ripple continues to unlock 1 billion XRP on the first day of every month, reserving a fraction (usually between 20% to 40%) for its monthly sales and expenses, while re-locking the remaining tokens into new escrows for the following years.
Ripple escrows to unlock 1 billion XRP for March sales
Similarly to February’s unlock, this month’s releases will happen once escrows located in ‘Ripple (26)’ and ‘Ripple (27)’ reach finality at the last second of February 28. These are labeled accounts by XRP Scan, identified as controlled by the company.
Until January, the unlocks were occurring from ‘Ripple (24)‘ and ‘Ripple (25)‘. Interestingly, the 300 million XRP sales and re-locks in February came from these two accounts, with their old balances.
This left ‘Ripple (26)’ and ‘Ripple (27)’ with a liquid 1 billion XRP tokens, not re-locked, as we would expect.
XRP price analysis amid incoming sell pressure from Ripple
As of this writing, XRP is trading at $2.03, down remarkables 34.23% since Ripple’s previous unlock last month. The downside is not exclusive to XRP, though, as the entire cryptocurrency market is suffering a crash, following tech stocks.
Nevertheless, the token has indeed presented one of the worst performances in the period, among other top cryptocurrencies. Fundamentally speaking, this can be explained by Ripple’s significant selling pressure that challenges the demand for XRP under current uncertainties.
The upcoming unlock and potential incoming sales could further pressure XRP price downwards unless enough demand surges again. Ripple has the largest monthly selling budget among all projects in this space, proportional to its market cap, requiring caution.
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