XRP, the native cryptocurrency of the Ripple community, has seen its worth grow massively in recent months, permitting it to overhaul many different large-market cap cryptocurrencies. On the time of writing, XRP is the third-largest crypto by market cap, and present shopping for tendencies suggest it might stay there for a while.
As of January 25, 2025, the altcoin has a complete provide of 100 billion tokens, with roughly 57.64 billion presently in circulation. Notably, a good portion of this circulating provide is concentrated amongst a small variety of wallets. Particularly, the highest 10 addresses maintain about 20.99% of the circulating provide, whereas the highest 50 addresses management roughly 53.3%, which raises the query in regards to the distribution of wealth within the ecosystem and who stands to profit probably the most from the value rally.
High 20 Wallets And Their Dominance Over XRP Provide
The most important XRP holdings are primarily related to Ripple Labs, its founders, and main cryptocurrency exchanges. When it comes to numbers, data from Coincarp exhibits that out of the 4,840,747 addresses, the highest 20 holders, the highest 50 holders, and the highest 100 holders maintain 50.31%, 63.74%, and 71.76% of the circulating provide, respectively.
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Based on distribution information, Ripple Labs currently owns round 46 billion XRP tokens, though most are locked in escrow. These tokens are released periodically in pre-set quantities, limiting Ripple’s capability to freely entry or manipulate the escrowed funds. Even with these restrictions, Ripple Labs holds a substantial quantity of liquid XRP. Information from blockchain explorer Bithomp signifies that one in all Ripple’s pockets addresses alone accommodates over 1.3 billion XRP.
Additionally, Ripple Labs co-founder Chris Larsen is the most important particular person holder of XRP, holding over 5 billion tokens, making him one of many wealthiest people within the ecosystem. Main exchanges like Binance and Uphold additionally handle important reserves. As an illustration, one in all Binance’s wallets holds over 1.3 billion XRP, accounting for about 1.33% of the circulating provide. South Korean-based crypto alternate Upbit additionally holds about 4.38% of the full provide, amongst a number of different exchanges.
Holding Distribution: Something To Concern?
These large-scale holdings by exchanges and Ripple-related entities paint an image of an XRP ecosystem dominated by a comparatively small group of stakeholders. Nevertheless, when you concentrate on it, these massive holdings aren’t within the arms of any personal firm or particular person that will doubtlessly be prone to manipulating the value for his or her profit.
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Moreover, the majority held by exchanges represents aggregated property belonging to hundreds, if not hundreds of thousands, of particular person customers. As such, their focus in exchanges doesn’t pose any unnatural danger to the pure worth dynamics for XRP.
On the time of writing, XRP is buying and selling at $3.10, having recently reached a seven-year high of $3.38.
Featured picture from Medium, chart from Tradingview.com