Ripple’s handling of its massive XRP escrow is once again under scrutiny, but this time the criticism comes with an unusual argument: Ripple might have been better off getting rid of the entire escrow years ago.
XRP advocate and attorney Bill Morgan criticized the way Ripple has managed the supply locked in escrow since 2017.
His argument is simple. Instead of releasing up to 1 billion XRP every month and repeatedly locking much of it back up, Ripple could have allowed the full monthly amount to enter circulation until the original 55 billion XRP allocation was exhausted.
Morgan believes that approach would have eliminated one of the longest-running criticisms surrounding XRP.
“My biggest complaint about Ripple is that they set up the escrow in December 2017 and placed 55 billion in escrow in 55 contracts and didn’t just distribute 1 billion per month since then,” Morgan wrote.
In his view, the market would by now have absorbed almost the entire XRP supply, leaving critics with no remaining escrow to blame for weak XRP price performance.
What you'll learn 👉
Ripple Still Has 32.6 Billion XRP Locked in Escrow
The scale of the remaining supply explains why the subject continues to generate debate.
Ripple originally placed 55 billion XRP into escrow in December 2017 to make its future supply more predictable.
As of June 30, 2026, Ripple reported that approximately 32.6 billion XRP remained in escrow, compared with roughly 62.33 billion XRP already distributed.
That means only around 22.4 billion XRP of the original 55 billion escrow balance has permanently left that escrow pool over roughly eight and a half years.
The reason is the monthly recycling mechanism.
Each month, as much as 1 billion XRP becomes available to Ripple. The company can use part of that amount, and XRP that is not needed can be placed into new escrow contracts at the end of the existing queue.
That is why the escrow still contains tens of billions of XRP despite monthly unlocks taking place since 2018.
There Is One Problem With the “1 Billion XRP Every Month” Argument
Morgan’s criticism raises an interesting question, but there is an important piece of history worth adding.
My biggest complaint about Ripple is that they set up the escrow in December 2017 and placed 55 billion in escrow in 55 contracts and didn’t just distribute 1 billion per month since then. If they did not have a discretion to distribute just some of it to the market and re-lock the rest they would have to “dump” 1 billion per month into the market. That was the plan wasn’t it in 2017? If they had done this the whole 55 billion would have been distributed by the second half of 2023 and the circulating supply today would be 95% of total supply. More importantly there would be nothing left in escrow and we would not have to listen to the mind numbing bleating about Ripple dumping on retail and the moronic oft-repeated call for Ripple to burn the escrow. You wonder what the those who currently complain about the escrow dump and Ripple not burning the escrowed XRP will whinge about when it eventually is all distributed. Who will they attack then when they are unhappy about XRP price action?
— bill morgan (@Belisarius2020) November 1, 2026
Ripple never said in 2017 that the entire 1 billion XRP unlocked each month would automatically enter the market.
Its original escrow announcement specifically explained that unused XRP would be returned to escrow.
Ripple even provided an example: if 500 million XRP remained unused after a monthly release, those tokens would be locked again at the end of the escrow schedule.
So 1 billion XRP was effectively a monthly ceiling on how much became available to Ripple, not a commitment to sell or distribute 1 billion XRP into the market every month.
Early data shows how large the difference could be.
During Q3 2018, for example, 3 billion XRP was released from escrow across three months. Ripple subsequently returned 2.6 billion XRP to escrow, meaning only 400 million XRP was retained for ecosystem-related use during the entire quarter.
That mechanism was therefore functioning much as Ripple had described from the beginning.
But Morgan’s Bigger Point About XRP May Still Be Worth Discussing
The more interesting part of Morgan’s argument may not be what Ripple originally promised.
It is the counterfactual question of what XRP would look like today if Ripple had deliberately chosen a much faster distribution model.
Imagine Ripple had permanently removed 1 billion XRP from escrow every month.
The original 55 billion XRP balance would have disappeared years ago. Based on 55 monthly releases beginning around the start of 2018, the original escrow schedule would have effectively run its course around mid-2022 if nothing had ever been re-locked.
There would no longer be 32.6 billion XRP hanging over the market as a future supply consideration.
That does not necessarily mean Ripple should have sold 1 billion XRP on exchanges every month. Distribution could have happened through institutions, ecosystem programs, strategic investments and other channels.
Still, the trade-off would have been significant.
XRP could have experienced much heavier supply expansion earlier in its history, but the market today would have far less future Ripple-controlled supply to digest.
Instead, Ripple chose slower distribution.
The result is the exact debate Morgan is pointing to.
Would Faster XRP Distribution Have Actually Helped the Price?
This is where the argument becomes much less obvious.
Removing the escrow faster would eliminate future supply uncertainty, but getting there would require the market to absorb far more XRP earlier.
Consider what happened in Q2 2018.
Three billion XRP came out of escrow, but 2.7 billion was returned. Ripple reported $73.53 million in XRP sales during the quarter, representing only a small fraction of overall XRP trading volume.
Forcing the entire unlocked amount into circulation would have created a completely different supply environment.
The market might eventually have benefited from reaching near-full circulation earlier.
The cost could have been years of greater sell-side pressure to get there.
There is no way to know which scenario would have produced a higher XRP price today.
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