Ripple released 1 billion XRP from escrow on Nov. 1 UTC and returned 700 million later that day, leaving a net 300 million XRP outside escrow, XRP Ledger records show.
The two releases each moved 500 million XRP at 8 p.m. ET Oct. 31 (00:00:02 UTC Nov. 1). Three later transactions returned 100 million, 500 million and 100 million XRP, respectively, between 12:38 p.m. and 12:42 p.m. ET Nov. 1 (17:38 to 17:42 UTC).
Ripple said in a 2017 explanation that it had locked 55 billion XRP in escrow to make the amount available to the company more predictable. Its plan allowed monthly releases of up to 1 billion XRP, with unused tokens to be placed in new escrows. Ripple said it could return unused XRP, making the monthly allowance a ceiling rather than a fixed release.
Separately, Ripple announced Oct. 28 that Ripple USD (RLUSD) was available to retail and institutional customers through Coinbase. Ripple said the stablecoin was supported on the XRP Ledger, Base and Ethereum.
At CoinDesk Live at Ripple Swell on Oct. 29, Jack McDonald, Ripple’s senior vice president of stablecoins, said RLUSD activity on the XRP Ledger supports demand for XRP because the network uses XRP to pay transaction fees. “Every single time we mint or use RLUSD on the XRP Ledger is positive for XRP,” McDonald said. He gave no estimate of how much demand the activity added for XRP.
