Ripple has moved a substantial amount of XRP tokens across different wallets, locking up half of the volume despite witnessing no escrow release for April yet.
The Ripple escrow system is observing an anomaly in April, a trend that has persisted since last year. Specifically, the system has not triggered the release of any tokens from escrow, a deviation from the usual pattern that sees 1 billion XRP released on the first day of each month.
However, despite not witnessing any escrow release for April, Ripple has carried out its typical whale movements for the month. Specifically, Whale Alert confirmed that Ripple moved 500 million XRP across different wallets this morning.
Ripple Moves 1B XRP Worth $2.1B
For context, the first transaction saw the Ripple (26) wallet transfer 300 million XRP worth $629 million at the time to the Ripple-affiliated address “rBg…91m” today at 03:06 UTC. Three minutes later, Ripple (26) transferred an additional 200 million XRP worth $420 million to another Ripple-affiliated wallet “rKD…2op.”
Whale Alert on X
While Whale Alert indexed the initial 500 million XRP movements, it failed to track a subsequent fund flow that saw Ripple transfer another batch of XRP tokens with a separate address. Notably, a few minutes after the initial transactions, another wallet, Ripple (27), sent out 500 million XRP.
The wallet first moved 170 million XRP worth $357 million to the address “rkD…2op” at 03:28 UTC. It bears mentioning that this was the same address that received the 200 million XRP from the first batch of transactions.
Three minutes after the 170 million XRP transaction, Ripple (27) transferred 330 million XRP valued at $693 million to a third Ripple-affiliated wallet, “rDd…eCK.” This was the wallet’s first XRP transaction since March 1. Overall, Ripple moved a total of 1 billion XRP this morning.
Ripple Re-locks 700M XRP in Escrow for April
Interestingly, Ripple’s agenda for these high-value transfers appears to have been a consolidation of assets and movements to escrow accounts. First, “rKD…2op,” which received 200 million XRP and then 170 million XRP, proceeded to lock up all 370 million XRP in escrow at 03:33 UTC.
Further, the “rDd…eCK” wallet, which received 330 million XRP during the second batch of transactions, also re-locked all 330 million XRP tokens in escrow at 03:36 UTC. This brought the total amount of XRP re-locked today to 700 million, out of 1 billion tokens moved by the payments giant.
Now, address “rBg…91m,” which received the 300 million XRP during the initial transaction batch, has held onto its tokens since then. The wallet’s balance now stands at 400 million XRP, which the blockchain payment firm could leverage for business operations.
While Ripple often engages in these fund movements each month, the latest ones have taken a deviation due to the absence of a preceding escrow release. Notably, the firm typically witnesses the release of 1 billion XRP from escrow and then locks up 700 million.
The absence of the escrow release is likely a result of a delay in the release schedule. It bears mentioning that Ripple does not trigger the release manually, and the system could initiate the unlock later in the month. Meanwhile, amid the recent movements, XRP price has dropped considerably, down 1.87% this morning to $2.09.
