XRP up more than 30,000% since 2012…“Price surges even as Ripple and executives cut holdings”

Ripple and its executives’ XRP holdings have fallen sharply over the past 13 years, yet XRP’s price is estimated to have climbed more than 30,000% over the same period.

According to cryptocurrency-focused outlet The Crypto Basic on the 26th, XRP traded at around $0.00587 as of August 2013 and is now trading near $1.88. Based on those levels, XRP’s price is up roughly 31,756%.

The report said that when the XRP Ledger (XRPL) launched in 2012, a total of 100 billion XRP were minted at once, and the system was designed to make additional issuance impossible. At the time, the network’s designers transferred the supply to Ripple and early key figures to support ecosystem development and operations.

Of that, about 80 billion were allocated to the company then known as NewCoin, which later became OpenCoin before changing its name to Ripple. The remaining roughly 20 billion were reportedly distributed to founders and early insiders.

The outlet said Ripple and its executives hold a combined 41.485 billion XRP. Compared with the initial allocation at launch, about 58.5 billion are estimated to have entered circulation or been reduced from their balances. At current prices, that equates to about $109 billion.

Breaking it down, Ripple holds about 3.5 billion XRP in available wallets, while about 34.185 billion are locked in escrow. Ripple Chairman Chris Larsen holds roughly 2.5 billion across multiple wallets, and Arthur Britto is believed to hold about 1.3 billion.

The outlet reported that “Ripple has maintained that this reduction in holdings is part of a process to provide market liquidity and ease concerns about centralization.” Ripple Chief Technology Officer (CTO) David Schwartz has also previously said in public remarks that Ripple’s XRP sales are intended to gradually reduce its ownership share.