Fears of Ripple burning its approximately 32 billion of XRP that is currently held in escrow have surfaced again in the crypto community. However, crypto commentator and Digital Ascension Group Chairman Jake Claver says thats not possible as of now. He said that since the XRP Ledger is based on decentralized validator consensus, which could save the XRP in escrow from any kind of burn activities.
Can Ripple Burn Its 32 Billion XRP Held In Escrow？
Based on XRPScan data, currently a stash of around 32.45 billion XRP is locked in escrow. Meanwhile, theres approximately 67.53 billion XRP in circulation, and the total supply of XRP on the XRP Ledger is set at 100 billion.
Almost 1.44 million XRP has been permanently burned due to transaction fees. Hence, the total amount of XRP available to be burned is nearly 99.99 billion of which Ripple owns around 32% stake.
In response to the rumors swirling around X, Claver wrote, “‘Will Ripple just burn the escrow？’ They cant.” He said that Ripple operates three out of 35 trusted validators, while any change to the protocol needs to get 80% of the validators to agree.
‘Will Ripple just burn the escrow？’ They cant. Ripple runs 3 of 35 trusted validators, and any change needs ~80% consensus. They can lock XRP in escrow, but torching supply takes 28 other independent validators voting yes. Decentralization, in practice
According to the video Claver attached to the post, Ripple cannot destroy the escrowed tokens with its own authority. “They have to have an 80% consensus in order to pass an amendment on the network,” he explained.
Thus, Claver declared: “They cant burn it.” He added, They can escrow it, they can lock it. They can give it away, they can transfer it, but they cannot burn it without putting it to a vote for the UNL validators. A similar vote to upgrade system was used recently to update the XRP Ledger v3.2.0 after its June 15 release.
Claver also brought attention to comments by Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz in February 2024. “David Schwartz has explicitly said these words. Well, not verbatim, but pretty close in the tweets,” he added.
What Did Schwartz Say？
Schwartz‘s comments were made during a conversation regarding Ripple’s long-term XRP holdings. He said that the initial intent was to liquidate at a much faster rate than that.
“We were originally hoping to get our holdings way down in just a few years mostly using giveaways. That strategy just didn‘t work,” Schwartz wrote. He added, “We don’t want to be holding lots of XRP for decades, but its not clear what other options we have.”
Thereafter, Schwartz rejected a suggestion from another X user to burn XRP from escrow every month to support XRP price. “If you‘re thinking that will have some positive impact on the price, I don’t think theres any reason to believe that,” he said.
For this, Schwartz referred to the token burn by Stellar which he said had “no real effect” on the XLM price. Schwartz also cross questioned the user on why Ripple would make such a not-so-profitable move.
I think people are looking in the wrong place. Look at this comparison of XRP versus XLM over one year and over several years.
He questioned, “Why would Ripple consider an option that doesn‘t give it millions of dollars over an option that does give it millions of dollars when there’s no evidence of any benefits？” Stellar‘s burn only depleted the foundation’s resources, he added.
In another response, Schwartz emphasized that despite a big token burn, the market did not budge as he shared several charts. “Stellar burned 53% of the supply and you cant even find it on the XLM/USD chart, the XLM/BTC chart, or the XLM/XRP chart,” he wrote. The Ripple CTO Emeritus declared: “It just destroys something that has value.”
Stellar burned 53% of the supply and you cant even find it on the XLM/USD chart, the XLM/BTC chart, or the XLM/XRP chart. All they did was reduce their own resources. It just destroys something that has value.
In conclusion, both Claver‘s explanation and Schwartz’s previous comments indicate that Ripple will be unable to burn the escrowed XRP on its own. They also believe there is not much evidence that this would benefit XRP price at all, or even the entire ecosystem.