Ripple, which facilitates real-time gross settlement through blockchain technology and uses its native cryptocurrency XRP for providing liquidity, has begun the year by unlocking 1 billion XRP worth roughly $192 million from its escrow.
Whale Alert, which monitors XRP blockchain, has indicated that 1 billion XRP tokens, representing the quantity that is allowed to be withdrawn every month as per the schedule announced in 2017, has been unlocked.
Two years before, Ripple officials, through a blog post, stated that they would freeze 55 billion XRP in an escrow and release only 1 billion XRP every month to support the development and promotion of Ripple.
The blockchain firm, at that time, stated that their plan was to incentivize investors to ensure interest and utilization of XRP consistent.
The blog post explained how it obtains 1 billion XRP every month from escrow:
“We use Escrow to establish 55 contracts of 1 billion XRP each that will expire on the first day of every month from months 0 to 54. As each contract expires, the XRP will become available for Ripple’s use.”
Ripple continued:
“You can expect us to continue to use XRP for incentives to market makers who offer tighter spreads for payments and selling XRP to institutional purchasers.”
Before the 1 billion per month XRP selling scheme was implemented, the company was liquidating $300 million in XRP every month. Nevertheless, in 2019, liquidation process increased considerably, with Ripple selling several tokens in 2019 compared to earlier years.
The escrow movements have further become ineffectual to stop the price of XRP from declining further, relative to the price of Bitcoin (BTC) and greenback. Notably, XRP/USD declined to over two-year lows in December.
In the meantime, earlier this week, David Schwartz, chief technology officer of Ripple, has asserted that XRP purchase has not made the company any stronger financially.
At the same moment, he pointed out that the Ripple’s selloffs as “negligible.” XRP hardly responded to the news of unlocking of escrow, with the cryptocurrency trading at $0.1909, down 1.2% in the past 24 hours. Notably, several altcoins have lost more than 1% in the past 24 hours.
