Ripple Escrow Release Met with Shrugs as XRP Price Keeps Climbing

Ripple's monthly escrow release of one billion XRP tokens on September 1, 2026, was met with a shrug by the market. Instead of selling off, the price of XRP continued to climb.

This was not the first time Ripple released a large batch of XRP tokens. The company has been doing this since December 2017 as part of its escrow program. However, what's different now is that the market is no longer spooked by these releases.

The August price rally was driven by institutional buyers, with spot ETF inflows reaching $153.55 million and OTC desks serving institutional clients contributing to the surge in on-chain activity. The number of individual payment transactions on the XRP Ledger actually fell 10.5%, but each transaction carried more value.

The September release barely moved the needle, with XRP trading at $1.42 five days after the unlock. This is a far cry from the panic selling that occurred in previous years when similar releases triggered significant price swings.