In a recent tweet, Ripple CTO David Schwartz is working on a question about the timing of the company’s XRP escrow release.
X users asked questions along this subject, pointing to his observations that over the past few months, escrow releases appear to be random dates rather than typical first days of the month.
Users cited the latest release of 1 billion XRP as an example. In the last 24 hours, Blockchain Data Tracker Whale Alert reported 1 billion XRP unlocked from Ripple Escrow with three tranches: 500 million XRP, 100 million XRP and 400 million XRP. This happens as an unexpected thing considering the typical first day of the month, with Whale Alert reporting on August 9th.
X users pointed out that when looking at XRP Ledger Explorer’s XRPSCAN, Blockchain Explorer’s on-chain data always indicated the first day of the release date, so they could not say whether the release date was set to August 9th when it became public knowledge.
They are always released on the first day of the month. Just because an escrow is released doesn’t necessarily mean it will appear in ledger activities. The ledger does nothing on its own. It always waits for someone to submit a transaction to trigger it.
– David ‘Joelkatz’ Schwartz (@Joelkatz) August 9, 2025
On August 2nd, Whale Alert reported that 700 million XRP was trapped in Ripple Escrow in three tranches of 500 million XRP and three tranches of 200 million XRP transactions.
XRP Escrow speculation has been crushed
In response to X users’ questions, Ripple CTO David Schwartz revealed that escrow releases always occur on the first day of the month. He explains that escrow could be released, but the XRP ledger itself will not automatically process or display this until a transaction is submitted, resting X users’ guesses that Ripple could release it at once if it manipulates an escrow agreement and selects 36 billion XRPs.
“They are always released on the first day of the month. Just because escrow is released doesn’t necessarily mean they are seen in ledger activities. The ledger does nothing on its own. It’s always waiting for someone to trigger it to submit a transaction,” Schwartz replied.
With a recent release, XRPSCAN data reveals 35,608,394,748 XRPs currently held in Ripple Escrow.