Ripple Labs is scheduled to unlock 1 billion XRP, worth approximately $2.1 billion at press time, on May 1, drastically increasing the number of tokens in circulation.
Though the move, at face value, might appear inflationary and likely to drive the cryptocurrency’s price down, selling is, judging by previous such moves, likely unnecessary.
Specifically, the massive unlock is part of Ripple’s long-established escrow system that sees the release of a number of XRP at the beginning of each month that is followed by allocation of a portion to operational and other uses, and relocking of the remaining – usually the majority – cryptocurrency.
On May 1, two wallets are set to participate in the unlock: Ripple (26) and Ripple (27). The former contains two escrows scheduled to unlock with 200 million and 300 million XRP, while the latter has one batch of 500 million of the token, per the data Finbold retrieved from XRPScan on April 22.
Historically, the monthly XRP token unlocks have not had a meaningful impact on the day-to-day price fluctuations. However, the cumulative effects of repeated unlocks or changes in Ripple’s selling patterns could influence long-term supply dynamics.
XRP price performance
Meanwhile, XRP itself evaded the fate of multiple other prominent cryptocurrencies and has managed to remain in the green in 2025. Specifically, with its press time price of $2.10, the token is 1.17% up year-to-date (YTD).
Still, XRP’s most recent performance does give cause for concern to a far greater extent than the scheduled 1 billion token unlock. Being 11.84% down in the last 30 days, the cryptocurrency has participated in the broader market tariff wipe, but, having declined 1.32% in the last 24 hours, failing to take advantage of the latest cryptocurrency rally.
Featured image via Shutterstock
