Ripple hasn’t closed the door on burning the XRP it still holds in escrow — but insiders and executives are openly skeptical that doing so would move the market.
David Schwartz, Ripple’s chief technology officer, pointed to a precedent in crypto history: in 2019 the Stellar Development Foundation destroyed 55 billion XLM (about half of Stellar’s supply) and the market showed no obvious price reaction. Schwartz has argued Ripple could unilaterally ensure its locked XRP never enters circulation, and even achieve a similar outcome without an explicit burn by transferring control of the account that escrow releases into a place where the tokens can’t be spent.
CEO Brad Garlinghouse gave a cautious, noncommittal response when asked about permanently destroying the reserves, saying he “does not rule anything out.”
This discussion arrives alongside Ripple’s latest scheduled escrow release. On June 1, on-chain tracker Whale Alert recorded three transactions that unlocked a total of 1 billion XRP (worth more than $1.33 billion at the time): 500 million XRP (~$666M), 400 million (~$533M), and 100 million (~$133M).
Supply snapshot and how escrow works
- Total XRP supply is fixed at 100 billion tokens by the XRP Ledger protocol.
- As of early June 2026, roughly 61.85 billion XRP were in circulation (Binance market data), leaving about 38.15 billion still locked in Ripple’s escrow.
- The monthly 1 billion-XRP unlock is a scheduled release, but it doesn’t mean a billion tokens flood the market. Ripple re-escrows a significant portion of what it unlocks and only keeps a fraction for operational use; re-escrowing effectively pushes more supply further down the schedule.
- Schwartz has said Ripple voluntarily returns XRP it doesn’t expect to need or use back into escrow, which complicates any timeline for when — or whether — the escrow might be fully emptied.
Why the debate matters
Burning escrowed XRP would be a one-off, supply-side reduction that could remove tens of billions of tokens from the theoretical available supply. But precedent and Ripple’s own mechanics (re-escrows and voluntary returns) suggest the market impact of such moves is not straightforward. Ripple could also make the same practical change without a formal burn by rendering the escrowed tokens inaccessible.
The conversation over burning, re-escrowing and long-term supply management is likely to continue as Ripple navigates both market expectations and its own strategic needs.
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