Ripple released 1 billion XRP from escrow contracts on May 1, 2026, valued at $1.38 billion at current prices.
Meanwhile, David Schwartz – Ripple's former chief technology officer – took to social media to refute misconceptions about some kind of secret formula driving up Token prices.
Ripple releases 1 billion XRP from monthly escrow.
This monthly release is an automated mechanism that Ripple has implemented since December 2017, disbursing 1 billion XRP from escrow accounts. The system aims to increase transparency regarding the total supply and prevent large sell-offs that could cause significant price volatility.
According to Whale Alert, the release on May 1st included four major transactions: 200 million , 300 million , 100 million , and 400 million XRP, all confirmed transfers from Ripple's US corporate addresses.
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Ripple releases XRP monthly. Source: X/Whale AlertHistorically, Ripple would send back 70%–80% of this XRP into new escrow contracts. This means that the actual amount of XRP added to the circulating market each month is only about 200 to 300 million XRP , depending on the cycle, instead of the entire 1 billion XRP. This mechanism serves three main purposes.
- First, prevent sudden sell-offs that cause panic among small investors.
- Secondly, liquidation should be provided in a controlled manner to serve partners, institutional transactions, and ecosystem development.
- Ultimately, this mechanism helps create a transparent and predictable roadmap for the market.
The impact on price is generally not significant, mainly due to the locking up of a large portion of the available XRP supply. Traders anticipated this information in their technical analysis, mitigating the negative effects of a temporary increase in the circulating supply of Token .
"Another month, another big sell-off, and it will probably just stay there and the price won't go anywhere," member Steffan Chia on X.
David Schwartz Chia his key perspective on XRP price.
David Schwartz, former CTO of Ripple and principal architect of the XRP Ledger, has publicly and completely denied the existence of any secret tools that allow for the artificial manipulation of Token prices.
“Perhaps there was a time when people thought Ripple had some easy way to drive XRP prices up forever, just ‘waiting for the right moment’ to act. But the reality has changed so much now, it’s hard to believe we’ve held onto such a ‘magic switch’ for so long without flipping it…,” Schwartz Chia .
After years of regulatory oversight, transparent operations, and ecosystem development, these rumors have lost all basis. Schwartz emphasized that Ripple has always been transparent about its strategy, reasoning, and ultimate goals.
These statements address recurring community questions about products like Ripple Prime and Treasury . Schwartz has denied that these services are designed to generate large-volume XRP transactions in order to deliberately drive prices to unreasonable levels through market manipulation.
“If there really was a group of wealthy, rational people who believed XRP had a 1% chance of reaching $10,000 in the next 10 years, they would be ready to pay $20 per XRP today. So why aren’t they buying? Is there a conspiracy?” The former CTO of Ripple questioned in another post .
Schwartz has previously commented on the proposal to regularly burn the remaining 33 billion XRP held in escrow. He cited the case of Stellar in 2019, when over 55 billion Token were burned but the price did not experience any significant long-term fluctuations. Schwartz argued that this is a waste of resources and does not provide any real benefit.
His final message was clear and consistent with his previous stance: The future of XRP depends on its practical applications in cross-border payments, decentralized finance (DeFi), and real-world use cases, not on price manipulation for short-term profit.
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