Ripple has updated key stats on the amount of XRP it holds as well as which companies are helping to power the network.
As of February 9th, 2020, the San Francisco payments company says it has 49,700,000,013 XRP worth about $13.8 billion left in its cryptographically secured escrow accounts. The company placed 55,000,000,000 XRP in escrow back in late 2017, executing a monthly schedule that releases 1 billion XRP and makes the funds available for the company to sell.
Ripple says the escrow process is designed to give investors a way to track the company’s XRP holdings.
“Since 2012, Ripple has methodically sold XRP and used it to incentivize market maker activity to increase XRP liquidity and strengthen the overall health of XRP markets… By securing the lion’s share of XRP, people can mathematically verify the maximum supply of XRP that can enter the market.”
In the fourth quarter of 2019, the company says it sold a total of $13.8 million in XRP to institutions over the counter, while selling zero XRP on crypto exchanges.
Meanwhile, Ripple says Microsoft remains the most high-profile XRP Ledger validator processing transactions on the network.
The US-based digital asset trust company BitGo and Mexico-based crypto exchange Bitso are two of the newest enterprises contributing to the network. CGI, Berkeley Haas, Telindus, University of Tokyo, GateHub, WorldLink, Bahnhof and Flagship are also running validators, according to Ripple.
Ripple powers 17.1% of the ledger’s top-tier validators. In the long run, the company says it plans to detach itself from the process of deciding which entities are the most trusted on the network.
