XRP supply, escrow and tokenomics
Every XRP that will ever exist was created in a single moment in 2012. There is no mining, no staking issuance and no inflation schedule — which makes XRP's supply simple to state and unusually important to understand.
XRP supply
Fixed at 100B — created once, in 2012
- Circulating
- XRP that has been distributed and can trade freely on exchanges. This is the figure used for market cap.
- Ripple escrow
- XRP locked in on-ledger escrow contracts that release on a fixed monthly schedule. Unsold XRP is returned to a new escrow.
- Ripple balance sheet
- XRP the company holds outside escrow, used for sales to institutions, market making and ecosystem funding.
- Burned
- XRP destroyed by transaction costs. The base cost of every transaction is removed from supply permanently.
Live supply figures
- Circulating supply
- 62,744,504,852 XRP
- Market cap
- $92,728,424,559
- Fully diluted value
- $148,000,000,000
Circulating supply excludes XRP held in escrow and unsold company holdings. The gap between market cap and fully diluted value is the part of the supply not yet in the market.
Where the 100 billion went
At launch the founders allocated the majority of the supply to the company that became Ripple, keeping a portion for themselves, with the remainder distributed over the years through sales, grants and giveaways. That concentration is the single most common criticism of XRP, and it is a fair one to weigh: no other major crypto asset began with so much of its supply in corporate hands.
What changed the picture was escrow. In 2017 Ripple locked a large share of its holdings into on-ledger contracts that release a fixed amount each month. The contracts are enforced by the protocol, not by a promise, and their contents are visible to anyone. Unsold XRP has historically been returned to new escrow contracts, extending the schedule.
How the escrow works
The Ripple escrow, in four lines
- Ripple locked 55 billion XRP — 55% of the total supply — into escrow contracts in December 2017.
- Up to 1 billion XRP can unlock each month; historically only a fraction is sold.
- Whatever is not sold is placed back into a new escrow at the end of the queue.
- The escrows are enforced by the ledger itself, not by a company policy, so the schedule is publicly auditable.
The deflationary side
Every transaction on the XRP Ledger destroys its fee — usually around 0.00001 XRP. At current volumes that burn is tiny relative to the supply, and it would take an implausible amount of activity to make a material dent. It is worth knowing because it makes XRP's supply strictly decreasing, but it is not an investment thesis.
Account reserves lock up XRP in a different way. Every account holds a base reserve that cannot be spent while it exists, so a share of the circulating supply is always sitting immobile as the cost of having a wallet at all.
What this means for a buyer
Fixed supply is not the same as scarcity-driven appreciation. XRP has a hard cap, but it started fully issued, a large share is held by one company on a published release schedule, and the price is set by demand for a settlement asset rather than by an issuance halving. If you are buying XRP, the supply story is a risk to understand rather than a reason to expect a particular outcome.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many XRP are there in total?
100 billion were created when the XRP Ledger launched in 2012, and the protocol cannot create more. The total only decreases, because every transaction destroys a small amount of XRP as its fee.
Is XRP mined?
No. There is no mining and no block reward. The entire supply existed from the first ledger, which is why XRP is sometimes described as pre-mined.
How much XRP does Ripple hold?
Ripple was given a large share of the original supply and still holds a significant amount, a portion of it locked in on-ledger escrow contracts that release on a schedule. The exact balances are visible on the ledger and reported by Ripple quarterly.
Does the escrow release flood the market?
The contracts release a set amount each month, but historically much of it has been returned to new escrow rather than sold. The releases are scheduled and public, which is different from an unannounced supply shock — but they are still a real source of sell-side supply worth understanding.
Can new XRP ever be created?
No. There is no protocol mechanism to issue XRP. Supply is fixed at its original amount minus everything burned as transaction fees since 2012.
Understand the asset, then buy it well
The exchange you choose changes how much XRP you end up with. We rank them by exactly that.