At the Current XRP Release Rate, Here’s When Ripple Will Drain Its XRP Escrow

Ripple’s escrow system, designed to manage XRP supply, is gradually moving toward depletion.

As of today, Ripple has 35.6 billion XRP still locked in escrow. Projections suggest that these holdings could last another decade or less, depending on how much of each monthly release is returned to escrow.

Ripple’s Escrow Today

Ripple first locked over 54 billion XRP in escrow in December 2017, committing to a structured release of 1 billion XRP each month. The company typically re-locks a large portion of this amount to avoid market oversupply.

From January to August 2025, Ripple released 1 billion XRP each month and re-locked 700 million XRP—except in June, when it released 1 billion XRP and re-locked 670 million XRP.

This pattern indicates that Ripple is typically utilizing 300 million XRP per month, with occasional increases to 330 million.

Projections on Escrow Depletion

According to their analysis, if Ripple continues using 300 million XRP monthly, it could run out of escrowed XRP in approximately 9 years and 8 months. With 35.6 billion XRP currently remaining, this projects a depletion date around 2035. By September 2025, after the re-lock process, the escrow balance will drop to 35.3 billion XRP.

Meanwhile, if Ripple’s usage increases to 400 million XRP monthly, the escrow could be depleted in 7.5 years, around 2033.

Conversely, if Ripple stops re-locking tokens altogether, 12 billion XRP would enter the market each year. In that case, the escrow would be fully depleted within just 3 years.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the timeline for Ripple’s escrow depletion depends on whether the company maintains its current re-lock pattern of 700 million XRP per month or shifts toward keeping more XRP in circulation.

If the current pace continues, the escrow could last close to a decade. However, if Ripple increases its monthly usage, the reserves could run out much sooner—in just three years.

This uncertainty keeps the XRP community closely watching Ripple’s monthly decisions as each release offers new clues about how long its reserves will last.