Crypto analyst Del Crxpto has triggered speculation in the XRP community with cryptic tweets suggesting significant changes to the Ripple escrow strategy.
Del noted that when Ripple releases the details of its plans for the XRP escrow, it could be a game-changer for the XRP token. As a result, he warned investors that they have only until then to act. And after that, the opportunity could vanish in a flash.
This cryptic outlook suggests that crypto enthusiasts still have an opportunity to accumulate XRP at its current price of around $2. Should Ripple announce a strategy for its escrow holdings, the news could spark a frenzy and potentially drive a major price surge for XRP.
In a follow-up tweet, he further heightened speculation on the topic. Del claimed he is “not allowed to say” what he knows about what’s to come. All he could say was “XRP.” This implied that the asset or its ecosystem was on the verge of something significant.
These cryptic messages have fueled growing speculation about Ripple’s future plans for its XRP escrow system.
Notably, Ripple has been releasing 1 billion XRP from its escrow accounts each month since 2017. However, the company has also been re-locking many of these releases, prompting ongoing discussions about how long the escrow system will last.
Speculative Suggestions About Ripple’s New Escrow Strategy
Meanwhile, discussions have recently emerged within the crypto community about potential new strategies Ripple could adopt for its escrowed tokens—strategies that might benefit XRP holders.
One of the more controversial suggestions is for Ripple to hand over the escrowed XRP tokens to the U.S. government for use in a national crypto reserve. This idea surfaced after President Donald Trump’s initial comments about including XRP in the country’s crypto reserve plans.
Some commentators argue that transferring the escrow to the government could be technically simple, requiring only a minor change in the code to redirect the unlock recipient from Ripple to the U.S. government.
The overarching idea is that government ownership of XRP as a reserve asset could boost the token’s legitimacy and drive its price significantly higher. Some analysts have even speculated that XRP could soar to as high as $960 per coin, potentially helping the U.S. address its $30 trillion national debt.
However, this remains purely hypothetical and highly unlikely, especially given the U.S. government’s current preference for Bitcoin.
Additionally, handing over Ripple’s escrow to the government would be an unprecedented philanthropic act. For context, Ripple’s escrowed XRP is currently valued at over $78 billion, and at its peak in January, it exceeded $120 billion.
Can Ripple Donate to XRPLF?
Another proposal gaining traction among prominent figures in the XRP community is for Ripple to donate the escrowed funds to the XRP Ledger Foundation (XRPLF).
Specifically, Panos Mekras, co-founder of Anodos Finance, has argued that Ripple should not be holding more than 10 billion XRP.
He suggests the company donate the majority of its holdings to XRPLF, enabling the foundation to distribute the funds to initiatives that support the XRP ecosystem, such as grants, marketing efforts, and educational campaigns.
However, Ripple CTO David Schwartz responded that this idea is not realistically feasible. “We can’t just give it all to someone else and trust or hope they use it wisely,” he stated.
There’s really no way to do this. We can’t just give it all to someone else and trust/hope they use it wisely. We can’t come up with a set of restrictions that would make sense because the future is unpredictable. And if we kept control to ensure sanity, what would we accomplish?
— David “JoelKatz” Schwartz (@JoelKatz) March 30, 2024
Another proposal that has gained attention is for Ripple to burn the entire escrow supply. Supporters believe that doing so would create scarcity and drive up the price of XRP. Yet again, Schwartz dismissed this as far-fetched and lacking practical benefit, citing a similar move by Stellar in 2019, which did not impact XLM’s price as most expected.
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