Renewed fears that Ripple could burn the roughly 32 billion XRP locked in its escrow resurfaced this week. Digital Ascension Group chairman Jake Claver argues the company cannot destroy the tokens on its own, because any change to the XRP Ledger needs about 80% validator consensus. Past remarks from Ripple's David Schwartz add that he saw no reason to believe a burn would support the price.
Ripple cannot burn the roughly 32 billion XRP it holds in escrow without approval from the XRP Ledger's independent validators, according to Digital Ascension Group chairman Jake Claver. He pushed back on renewed community speculation that the firm might torch its locked supply, pointing to the network's decentralized consensus as the barrier.
Why a solo burn isn't possible
Claver noted that Ripple runs 3 of 35 trusted validators, while any protocol change requires roughly 80% of them to agree. Destroying the escrowed tokens would therefore need 28 other independent validators to vote yes.
The numbers underline the scale. Around 32.45 billion XRP sits in escrow, against about 67.53 billion in circulation and a total supply capped at 100 billion. Nearly 1.44 million XRP has already been permanently burned through transaction fees, leaving close to 99.99 billion that could in theory be destroyed — of which Ripple controls about a 32% stake.
Claver said Ripple could lock, transfer, or give away the tokens but not burn them without a validator vote, a stance he distilled to "They can't burn it." He compared the mechanism to a similar vote used recently to update the XRP Ledger v3.2.0 following its June 15 release.
Schwartz doubts a burn would help
The commentator also pointed to February 2024 remarks from Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz. Schwartz had explained that Ripple originally hoped to reduce its holdings within a few years through giveaways, but that approach fell short.
However, Schwartz rejected the idea of monthly escrow burns to prop up the XRP price, saying he saw no reason to believe it would help. He pointed to Stellar's token burn, which he said had no real effect on the XLM price.
Schwartz argued that Stellar burned 53% of its supply with no visible mark on the XLM/USD, XLM/BTC, or XLM/XRP charts, and that such a move only depletes a project's own resources.
Source: CoinGape
Trading involves risk.
Risk Disclaimer
