Ripple CTO Ends Speculation on XRP Escrow Release: Details

In a recent tweet, Ripple CTO David Schwartz addressed a question about the timing of the company’s XRP escrow releases.

An X user had asked a question along this subject matter, pointing out his observation that in the last couple of months, escrow releases seemed to be on random dates rather than the typical first day of the month.

The user cited the most recent release of 1 billion XRP as an example: In the last 24 hours, blockchain data tracker Whale Alert reported 1 billion XRP unlocked from Ripple escrow in three tranches of 500 million XRP, 100 million XRP and 400 million XRP. This comes as unexpected given the typical first day of the month release, with the reporting by Whale Alert being on Aug. 9.

The X user pointed out that a look at the XRP Ledger explorer, XRPscan, could not say if the release date was set to Aug. 9 when it became public knowledge, as on-chain data from the blockchain explorer always indicated the first day of each month as the scheduled release date.

They always release on the first day of the month. You may not necessarily see any on ledger activity just because the escrow has released though. The ledger doesn’t do anything by itself, it always waits for someone to submit a transaction to trigger it.

— David ‘JoelKatz’ Schwartz (@JoelKatz) August 9, 2025

On Aug. 2, Whale Alert reported 700 million XRP locked in at the Ripple escrow in three tranches of 500 million XRP and two 100 million XRP transactions.

XRP escrow speculation squashed

In response to the X user’s question, Ripple CTO David Schwartz clarified that escrow releases always occur on the first day of the month. He explained that while the escrow might be released, XRP Ledger itself does not automatically process or display this until a transaction is submitted to trigger it, putting to rest the X user’s speculation that Ripple might potentially manipulate the escrow contract to release all 36 billion XRP at once if it chose to.

“They always release on the first day of the month. You may not necessarily see any on ledger activity just because the escrow has released though. The ledger doesn’t do anything by itself, it always waits for someone to submit a transaction to trigger it,” Schwartz answered.

With the recent release, data from XRPscan reveals 35,608,394,748 XRP now held in Ripple escrow.

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