XRP Up 31,000% Since 2012, As Ripple and Its Executives Sold 58B+ XRP in 13 Years

While Ripple and its executives have sold over 58 billion worth of XRP since 2012, the XRP price has surged more than 31,000% within the same period.

Notably, many believe this reality invalidates the consistent narrative that Ripple’s XRP sales have contributed to XRP’s underperformance during periods of stifled price growth.

For context, when Ripple launched as NewCoin in 2012, the original XRPL architects donated the entire XRP supply of 100 billion to Ripple and its executives to leverage toward the development of the XRPL. Today, this figure has reduced to around 41.485 billion, indicating the sale of over 51 billion XRP. However, the XRP price has surged more than 31,000% since then.

Key Points

• When Ripple launched as NewCoin in 2012, the original XRPL architects donated XRP’s total supply of 100 billion to the firm and its executives.
• Today, public records of their holdings show that both Ripple and its executives hold around 41.485 billion.
• The current figure indicates that they have sold more than 51 billion XRP since launch, drawing mixed reactions.
• However, despite these sales, the XRP price has increased by over 31,000% within this period.

How the XRPL Launched with a Fixed Supply

The XRP Ledger (XRPL) went live in 2012, and unlike Bitcoin and many later networks, it launched with its entire supply already created. The system introduced exactly 100 billion XRP at inception, and the protocol permanently blocked mining or staking from ever generating new coins.

Development began in 2011 under Jed McCaleb, Arthur Britto, and David Schwartz. When the network officially launched in mid-2012, the founders immediately structured the supply to support long-term growth, liquidity, and enterprise adoption.

However, instead of keeping most of the tokens personally, they transferred the overwhelming majority to the company that would later become Ripple.

Ripple Receives 80% of XRP Supply

Shortly after XRPL’s debut in 2012, the founding architects gifted 80 billion XRP, representing 80% of the total supply, to the company then known as NewCoin, later rebranded as OpenCoin, and eventually Ripple. This set up Ripple as the main steward of XRP’s distribution, liquidity strategy, and ecosystem development.

For several years, Ripple managed these holdings directly. In 2017, the company introduced a cryptographic escrow system to bring predictability to the market. Notably, Ripple locked 55 billion XRP into time-based escrows that released up to 1 billion XRP each month.

Ripple Executives Receive Remaining 20%

While Ripple received the majority of the supply in 2012, the remaining 20 billion XRP went directly to founders and early insiders at the network’s creation. Jed McCaleb, who later left Ripple in 2013, received 9 billion XRP at genesis.

Chris Larsen, who joined the project in September 2012 and later served as CEO before becoming executive chairman, received roughly 9 billion to 9.5 billion XRP. Arthur Britto, another XRPL co-creator and early advisor, received between 1 and 2 billion XRP in 2012.

David Schwartz, the network’s chief architect and current CTO of Ripple, held far less than the other founders. He has publicly disclosed that his peak balance reached about 26 million XRP, a fraction of the multi-billion-dollar allocations given to others.

Meanwhile, Ripple’s current CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, entered the company years after XRPL’s launch and did not participate in the original 2012 distribution.

Ripple and Its Executives Have Sold 58B XRP

Today, Ripple and its executives currently hold 41.485 billion overall. Specifically, Ripple itself holds 3.5 billion in spendable balance across trackable wallets, with 34.185 billion currently in escrow. This brings Ripple’s total holdings to 37.685 billion XRP.

Meanwhile, Chris Larsen, Ripple’s current Chairman, holds 2.5 billion across eight wallets, while Arthur Britto has seven wallets with a cumulative balance of 1.3 billion.

The current balance of 41.485 billion XRP held by Ripple and its executives indicates that they have sold around 58.5 billion XRP tokens since 2012, which would cost $109 billion at the current XRP price. Interestingly, within this period, XRP’s price has actually increased.

Specifically, XRP’s earliest market data shows a price of $0.00587 in August 2013. Today, the altcoin changes hands at $1.87, marking an increase of exactly 31,756% since 2013. According to Schwartz, Ripple’s consistent sales represent an effort to drastically reduce its large XRP holdings, which have raised centralization concerns.