An XRP community pundit believes most market participants underestimate how scarce XRP’s available supply has become.
In a recent commentary, Ripple Van Wickle argued that almost half of the entire supply has already been allocated to Ripple, its founders, and a small group of early institutions. He believes this supply is locked up, as such entities will likely continue to hold onto their bags.
XRP Has a Limited Supply
The market commentator suggested that retail investors only hold what he called scraps, while large investors have not even begun to take their positions. To him, XRP’s current price at the upper $2 mark should act as a signal of what lies ahead, not the top of the market.
Over 40% of XRP Supply Accounted For
Notably, Ripple Bull Winkle’s comments built on an earlier analysis from fellow community commentator 24HrsCrypto, who raised the same concern about how little XRP remains accessible.
According to 24HrsCrypto, Ripple’s escrow accounts currently hold about 37.3 billion XRP, or 37.3% of the supply, although updated numbers suggest those accounts now contain 35.31 billion XRP. He claimed that Ripple also controls 3.5 billion XRP in liquid form, while co-founder Chris Larsen holds 2.3 billion XRP and Arthur Britto owns 1.3 billion XRP.
People don’t realize how little XRP is left.
Ripple escrow: 37.3B XRP (37.3%)
Ripple liquid: 3.5B (3.5%)
Chris Larsen: 2.3B (2.3%)
Arthur Britto: 1.3B (1.3%)That’s nearly 44.4% of supply already accounted for…
..and then you have look at institutions.
Purpose ETF already… pic.twitter.com/ExyK7OUEAa
— 𝟸𝟺𝙷𝚁𝚂𝙲𝚁𝚈𝙿𝚃𝙾 (@24hrscrypto1) September 22, 2025
These allocations alone cover more than 40% of the total supply before considering institutions. 24HrsCrypto pointed out that institutions have already started to build positions. According to him, Purpose ETF holds 29.6 million XRP, and 3iQ manages another 45 million XRP.
He emphasized that these two are relatively small firms compared to trillion-dollar giants. Notably, the XRP community awaits spot ETFs next month. The pundit estimated that retail investors may only control about 15% of the entire supply.
Speaking further, he warned that once firms like JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs move into the market, billions more XRP will likely vanish into cold storage. At the time of his remarks, XRP traded at $2.91, and he said he would revisit this price later to prove his point.
Yield-Bearing Projects and Declining Exchange Supply
These warnings about an incoming supply crunch have gained momentum at a time when exchange reserves appear to be dwindling and yield projects emerge that could lock up even more XRP.
A recent report showed that Coinbase’s XRP cold wallets fell from 52 wallets holding 970 million XRP in June to just two wallets containing 32 million XRP by September 20.
Interestingly, the latest data from XRPScan shows Coinbase has now emptied those last two wallets as well. Market watchers have linked this to shrinking XRP reserves on Coinbase, but the exchange has not made any official confirmations.
Meanwhile, the XRP community has seen the launch of two new yield-bearing projects designed to tie up more supply. For context, this week alone, Axelar introduced mXRP, and Flare launched FXRP.
Notably, four hours after going live, FXRP already maxed out its first weekly cap of five million XRP, and the team confirmed it will increase the cap this week.
It bears mentioning that Axelar aims to lock 5% of the circulating supply with mXRP, while Flare is targeting five billion XRP, or about 8%. Together, both projects could absorb 13% of the circulating supply. If they reach these goals, the “supply shock” theory could start becoming a reality.
