Ripple concludes 700 million XRP escrow lock for April

Ripple Labs re-locked 70% of the 1 billion XRP received from its escrow account in April 2026.

The blockchain payment company returned 700 billion tokens to the escrow system in two tranches of 500 million and 200 million on April 1. As such, XRP worth about $945 million was made inaccessible until the company receives another unlock next month.

Although the company froze a significant amount of XRP, it diluted the altcoin’s circulating supply with an extra 300 million units, valued at approximately $384 million on April 2, per data shared by Whale Alert. At press time, the amount in the escrow stood at around 33.344 billion, while the net circulating supply was at roughly 66.626 billion, according to on-chain analysis from XRPSCAN, a dedicated search engine for the XRP Ledger (XRPL). 

Ripple Labs could be following a similar trend to Q1 in the second quarter, after it dumped 900 million tokens in the first three months of 2026.

What’s the impact of Ripple’s escrow activity on XRP price?

Although the company has, over the years, justified its monthly dump as crucial to its growth and the mainstream adoption of the XRP ledger, the significant monthly sell-offs have weighed down on the price of this altcoin. Over the past 24 hours, the price of this token fell by more than 4%, trading at around $1.30 at the time of this publication.

David Schwartz defends XRPL-Ripple moves

David Schwartz, a founding member of XRP Ledger, has, however, defended Ripple’s business model, which is heavily dependent on monthly sales from the escrow account to remain profitable. He stated on Thursday that Ripple’s close relationship with XRP Ledger would be mutually beneficial, but not necessarily lucrative for other companies adopting its payment products.