The recent year began with a familiar but closely watched event in the XRP ecosystem: Ripple released 1 billion XRP from escrow January 1, 2026 The unlock came at a sensitive time for price action, just after XRP ended December 2025 in the red.
This often leads to huge deposit waivers concerns about sales pressurebut early on-chain activity suggests that a typical Ripple pattern is already developing, with a significant portion of unlocked assets being prepared to be re-locked.
How the 1 billion XRP deposit was released
Blockchain data shows the release occurred in three huge transactions, all settled within a narrow time window on January 1. Just after starting the year, 300 million XRP worth approximately $552 million, has been unlocked and sent to the address rMhkqz, identified as the Ripple wallet (28). Shortly thereafter, another 200 million XRP worth approximately $368 million thrown into the same wallet, increasing Ripple (28) consumption to half a billion XRP in seconds.
The last and biggest part went to the third wallet during which 500 million XRP worth approximately $920 million was sent to the address r9NpyV, marked as a Ripple wallet (9). Collectively, these transactions completed the scheduled release of 1 billion XRP worth of XRP deposit, immediately increasing paper supply.
The timing of the escrow release adds complexity to XRP’s near-term prospects. XRP ended December 2025 with a red monthly close of negative 14.8%. Notably, this was the first time XRP closed December in the red since 2022. An influx of unlocked tokens during such a period could enhance bearish sentiment, especially among short-term investors sensitive to supply changes.
Reblocking activity as Ripple repeats its playbook
History shows that Ripple always re-locks between 70% and 80% of each monthly deposit release, which has helped mitigate long-term supply shocks. Interestingly, post-unlock activity indicates that this approach was repeated within 24 hours of unlocking. Transaction records from XRPScan reveal that funds leaving the Ripple wallet (9) were quickly diverted to recent deposit agreements, and much of the newly released supply was removed from direct circulation.
Millions of tokens were sent simultaneously from Ripple (9) and Ripple (28). At 17:17 UTC, a deposit transaction locked 500 million XRP on the Ripple address (15), followed by another deposit transaction at 17:21 UTC that secured an additional 100 million XRP in the same wallet.
Related reading: Ripple’s XRP Ledger Just Did Something Bitcoin Has Never Done
Parallel activity was also observed with Ripple (14), where a separate deposit creation locked 100 million XRP at 17:19 UTC. In total, these transactions included 700 million XRP already returned to the escrow account.
The emergence of escrow transactions is changing the supply airdrop narrative. Instead of a full-scale sell-off, the data points to a controlled re-blocking, consistent with Ripple’s deposit management strategy. The price reaction of XRP will likely depend less on the primary deposit itself becoming available and more on how much of the remaining deposit is unlocked supply reaches cryptocurrency exchanges.
Featured image from Medium, chart from Tradingview.com
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