XRP News Today: Ripple Locks 300 Million XRP in Escrow Amid Market Uncertainty

Ripple has locked 300 million XRP, valued at approximately $659.8 million, into escrow as part of its regular monthly rebalancing. This move comes after the release of 500 million XRP from Ripple’s escrow account earlier in the month. The July 1 rebalancing involved several transfers across Ripple wallets before a portion was moved back into escrow. Notably, the volume of the token released so far falls short of the typical 1 billion XRP unlocked monthly, with the possibility of additional unlocks before the month ends.

At the time of writing, the price of XRP was trading at $2.19, reflecting a 0.8% decline from its previous level of $2.21. This drop follows a decrease in daily trade volume, which fell by 36.4% to $2.51 billion. XRP has seen a small 0.15% gain over the last seven days, while its market capitalization stands at $129.15 billion. The combination of falling price and volume suggests weakening interest from market participants, potentially due to broader market uncertainty and shifting macroeconomic conditions.

After receiving the 500 million XRP from escrow, Ripple’s wallet redistributed the funds across two separate accounts. It transferred 200 million XRP to address “rN8pqR” and 300 million XRP to “rKwJaG.” Following these transfers, the wallet still held 500 million XRP. Shortly after, Ripple locked 400 million XRP back into escrow using its Ripple address. This wallet received 200 million XRP each from wallets “rGKHDy” and “rHGfmg” just minutes apart. These movements form part of Ripple’s ongoing XRP supply management efforts.

The XRP Ledger (XRPL) has launched its Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible sidechain on mainnet. Developed in partnership with Ripple, Peersyst, and Axelar, the sidechain enables full Ethereum smart contract functionality on XRPL for the first time. This feature allows for the direct deployment of decentralized applications (dApps) and protocols using the XRP ecosystem. The announcement briefly pushed XRP to around $2.20, though the price has since slipped slightly.