Ripple CTO Schwartz Says He Chose Ripple Shares Over XRP

David Schwartz, the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) at Ripple, recently revealed his preference for Ripple shares over XRP. He made the revelation under a thread where X users were discussing Ripple’s substantial XRP holdings.

Amid the conversation, an X user asked Schwartz if he preferred owning Ripple shares rather than XRP. The anonymous X user queried, “Is it true that you decided to receive the ripple shares rather than the digital asset XRP?”

In response, the Ripple CTO confirmed his preference for the company’s share. However, he noted that he is not sure it was the best investment decision, adding that if he had opted for XRP, his holdings would have become more liquid by now.

Ripple’s Robust XRP Holdings

Ripple boasts a significant 46.55 billion XRP, accounting for approximately 46.5% of the coin’s 100 billion total supply.

Out of the 46.55 billion XRP, Ripple can only sell approximately 5.26 billion while locking up about 41.3 billion tokens in the escrow.

As a usual practice, Ripple has maintained the tradition of releasing 1 billion XRP from the escrow every month. However, it is only a transient release as the blockchain platform will relock about 800 million XRP after the initial release.

XRP Constant Sales Raise Concerns

In Q3 of 2023, Ripple sold about 892 million tokens. The massive sales raised worries about the potential negative impact of such sales on XRP’s market value.

A concerned X user with the pseudonym “GDP.Burn the Escrow!” queried why Ripple’s main business seemed to revolve around dumping. Schwartz however, clarified that there are no other suitable means to go about reducing Ripple’s XRP holdings other than sell or hold.

The Ripple CTO remarked, “Ripple has two choices. We can continue to hold as much XRP as we do or we can reduce the amount of XRP that we hold. There isn’t any third option. Ripple’s original plan was to reduce our XRP holdings as quickly as we could.”

The same X user probed again. This time, he suggested burning some of the locked-up XRP tokens in the escrow instead of the massive sales, which could cause devastating effects in the long run.

Schwartz also countered the idea, noting that he can not think of any events that could result in burning XRP held in the Ripple escrow. The CTO added that he does not think the idea will yield positive results.

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Chinedu Agbakwusi

Chinedu Agbakwusi is a medical student at the prestigious Nnamdi Azikiwe University with sound knowledge of the crypto space. I am here to be a reliable plug for well-researched crypto content ranging from crypto news to market analyses and blockchain inventions.