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Ripple has officially secured 55 billion XRP in escrow in a new bid to provide supply predictability in financial markets.
One of the defining characteristics of Ripple’s XRP token is its immense supply – totalling over 100 billion units -and earlier this year Ripple itself committed to placing some 55 billion tokens in a crypto raphically-secure escrow to create certainty in the market. As of today, the company has officially achieved its plans.
The move, according to Ripple, eliminates concerns that Ripple could at any time flood the market with a slew of tokens, and enables traders to mathematically verify the maximum XRP supply that can enter the market.
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The company’s escrow feature – now available in the XRP Ledger – has been used by Ripple itself to place 55 contracts of one billion XRP each in escrow that will expire on the first day of every month, from month ‘0’ to ’54’.
As each contract expires, XRP will then become available for Ripple’s use. Unused tokens will be returned to escrow in a new account that will be set to expire in a following month – for the sake of example, month ’55’.
Ripple elaborated that it typically sells an average of 300 million XRP tokens per month.
The feature further enables parties to secure XRP tokens for a certain amount of time or signal their release once conditions have been met. In the case of payments, the escrow feature further allows transacting parties to place conditions on when a payment can be completed.
In a press statement, the company elucidated that “This move underscores Ripple’s commitment to building XRP liquidity and a healthy and trusted market. Long term, the value of digital assets will be determined by their utility. XRP has emerged as the only digital asset with a clear institutional use case designed to solve a multi-trillion dollar problem – the global payment and liquidity challenges that banks, payment providers and corporates face.”
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What are your thoughts? What long-term effects could Ripple’s escrow feature have for the future of its XRP token? Be sure to let us know your opinion in the comments below!