Ripple re-locks 700 million XRP in May, calming market fears

Ripple Labs’ completed its scheduled monthly rebalancing on May 1, moving 1 billion $XRP and relocking a significant portion of the tokens back into escrow.

The digital assets company, per its usual pattern, was scheduled to unleash 1 billion tokens worth approximately $2.2 billion from two wallets, Ripple (26) and Ripple (27). In a reassuring sign for investors, no new $XRP will be released into circulation for May 2025 (if things stay as they are), helping to limit selling pressure.

As part of its standard rebalancing, Ripple distributed the 1 billion $XRP across six addresses, according to the data Finbold retrieved from XRPScan on May 2, the Ripple (26) contained two escrows set to unlock with 200 million and 300 million $XRP, while Ripple address (27) had one batch of 500 million tokens.

The two primary wallets for May – Ripple (26) and Ripple (27) – sent out 300 million tokens to Ripple (1) and locked into escrow another 700 million across Ripple (12), Ripple (14), and Ripple (15).

The latest unlock came during increased volatility and a relatively downward direction of $XRP.

Despite this, the first day of May went without a significant price move. Though there was a moderate dip on May 2, $XRP swiftly recovered and is, at press time, changing hands at $2.22, following confirmation of the re-locking, likely reducing fears of excess supply entering the market.

$XRP's performance in the last 7 days.">

$XRP underperforms the market despite recent rally

$XRP slightly underperformed the broader market in April and at the start of May.

Its trajectory has generally followed the moves of many other major cryptocurrencies and the leadership of Bitcoin ($BTC). The token enjoyed a significant recovery from the April 7 lows near $1.75, but the subsequent rise has not been particularly decisive.

For example, $BTC is up nearly 13% in the last 30 days, and $XRP a mere 4.25%.

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