Ripple moved 1 billion XRP out of escrow on the first day of September, splitting the release into three transactions of 500 million, 400 million, and 100 million tokens, according to Whale Alert. The unlock is part of the company's long-running monthly schedule, which allows up to 1 billion XRP to hit the ledger at the start of each month.
How the monthly unlock works
Ripple placed 55 billion XRP into escrow back in 2017, setting up a system where a fixed amount is released every month. The idea was to provide predictable supply to the market while keeping the bulk of tokens locked for the long term. In practice, Ripple typically re-escrows a large portion of each release, meaning the actual amount that reaches buyers and sellers is usually far smaller than the headline 1 billion figure.
That pattern matters for anyone watching XRP's price. The monthly unlock is a known event, and traders have learned to read it as a signal of potential selling pressure — but the re-escrow habit often softens that impact.
What the numbers show
Before this month's release, roughly 32.28 billion XRP sat locked in Ripple's on-ledger escrow as of August 31. After the September unlock, that number dropped to about 31.14 billion, leaving roughly 31.28% of the total 100 billion supply still locked. The math is straightforward: even with 1 billion released, the locked share barely moved.
XRP is trading near $1.36, down 0.5% in the last 24 hours and off 8.20% over the past week. The token nearly touched $1.70 in August before pulling back. But the longer view is still positive — XRP is up 30.8% over the past 30 days and 14.5% over the last 90 days.
Liquidations and market mood
Coinglass data shows over $3.32 million worth of XRP positions were liquidated in the past 24 hours. Short liquidations came to roughly $1.19 million, while long liquidations hit about $2.13 million. That imbalance — more longs getting wiped out than shorts — suggests bearish traders took the brunt of recent volatility, even though XRP's broader trend hasn't shown a decisive breakout.
The price action around the unlock will likely stay choppy. With the monthly release now out of the way, the next question is how much Ripple chooses to re-escrow. That decision, which typically comes within days, will tell traders how much of this 1 billion actually flows into the open market.
