Only 45,000 XRP? The Truth About XRP’s Top 1%

[00:00:00]Updated figures from the XRP ledger have revealed something that most XRP holders won't expect. You now need just 45,000 XRP to place your wallet inside the top 1% of XRP ledger accounts. But, here is where nobody is talking about this, cuz the amount required is actually declining. To be in the top 1% it used to take nearly 46,000 XRP, but most recently this is now fallen to just over 45,000. Now, this doesn't automatically mean that XRP is being evenly distributed. However, it does reveal the exact opposite. Millions of smaller wallets are now entering at the bottom while exchanges, custodians, Ripple-related accounts, and very small number of enormous wallets continue to dominate the top of the market. But, when we connect the distribution to Ripple's escrow, institutional custody, and XRP's potential use as a liquidity asset, the rich list becomes very important and actually starts to reveal something very, very big. We're going to break it all down in today's video, understand exactly what's going on with the rich list. It's not just some random hype video, it's actually really important for the long-term view of what XRP is going to do. So, smash up the like button to a brand new all-time high. Let's get into it. So, let's begin with the updated XRP rich list levels.

[00:01:12]Approximately 2,155 XRP now places you in the top 10%.

[00:01:18]Approximately 45,000 XRP gets you into the top 1% of ledger accounts. Now, an exchange such as Binance or Uphold, Upbit, or Bithumb can hold XRP belonging to thousands or even millions of customers inside a limited number of wallets. And with Ripple's escrow accounts, they also appear as extremely large balances despite the fact that XRP being cryptographically locked and unavailable until its scheduled release.

[00:01:44]Right now, a wallet holding approximately 45,000 XRP currently now ranks among the top 1% of funded XRP ledger accounts. Now, you have to understand why this is important because it brings us to the question of real distribution. XRP can simultaneously appear while the distributed at the bottom and highly concentrated at the top with millions of addresses now containing relatively modest balances.

[00:02:07]Meanwhile, a comparatively small group of addresses holds a very large percentage of the available supply. Some of the largest balances though belong to things like Ripple related escrow accounts. They belong to centralized exchanges as well as institutional custodians, corporate treasury accounts, and liquidity providers. Recent estimates are now suggesting that the top exchange related addresses collectively represent billions of XRP, but those balances can belong economically to a much wider group of users. So, what are we actually saying here? Are we saying that the bottom end is getting less and the top end are accumulating? Well, no. This actually creating two versions of distribution.

[00:02:47]The first is the wallet distribution, essentially how XRP appears across the blockchain, and the second is around beneficial ownership. Basically, people or institutions that ultimately own the asset held with those addresses. And this distribution becomes even more important as XRP moves deeper into regulated custody. Retail investors commonly believe that institutional adoption will automatically make XRP and make it spread across multiple wallets.

[00:03:16]But this actually might produce the complete opposite, and that's the hidden narrative. Because a bank, an ETF custodian, or an exchange, they could pull all that XRP together, thousands of investors, and pull them into small number of institutional grade wallets.

[00:03:31]The ledger would then appear more concentrated even though the underlying economic ownership could be spread across many customers. Think about it this way, the XRP distribution is operating very much how banks pull their money together. Think about it, they'll have millions of customers all depositing their own money, and the bank, well, pulls it all together in a centralized fund. The bank then distribute it how they see fit in order for it to gain capital for that bank to make money. Sound familiar? Well, that's exactly what's going on with Ripple. The future of XRP may not be decided by how many people own it, but be decided by the fact that the liquidity where XRP sits and who controls access to it and how efficiently it can move. So, the obvious question that everyone's asking right now is what does this mean when it comes to the banks? You've seen the hype videos where people are repricing XRP to $50,000 per coin. But, banks simply don't need XRP's price to be secretly fixed. They need something more practical. They need sufficient liquidity, tight spreads, reliable market makers, and Ripple's previously argued that a deeper XRP liquidity and lower volatility could actually reduce the cost of using it as a bridge asset.

[00:04:39]So, the price right now isn't the most important fact. In fact, adoption, liquidity, and spreads are the thing we're looking for. A higher XRP price could theoretically increase the amount of value represented by each individual token. For example, if you want to move a billion dollars at $1 per XRP, you're going to require a billion XRP. You get the math. Times it by 10, all of a sudden the amount becomes less, and the transactional size stays the same. But, the real constraints aren't necessarily price, they're market depth, slippage, and available liquidity. And this is the main story that I believe happens around the escrow. Now, look, let's take a quick dive into history. XRP began with a maximum supply of 100 billion units.

[00:05:19]In 2017, Ripple placed around 55 billion XRP in a series of a cryptographic escrows. These escrows were designed to create predictability around how much Ripple controlled XRP and how much could become available. If XRP suddenly gains a greater utility across payments, tokenization, collateral, and institutional liquidity, well, future escrow releases could actually become a really strategic and become very valuable. The biggest supply squeeze wouldn't necessarily be that every XRP has to disappear, but more that it would require a percentage of XRP to become economically unavailable. Essentially, the total supply could stay near 100 billion while the amount available at current prices becomes dramatically smaller. This is how markets completely re-price, but there has to be a use case. And Ripple themselves, by the way, say that banks and global settlement could come up to 60% cost when you start talking about Ripple. So, look, let's kind of bring this together cuz I need you to understand that the rich list isn't just some list that people want to aspire to get on. It actually is more deeply thought of than many people think. Approximately 45,000 XRP currently places one address inside the top 1% of funded XRP ledger accounts. A falling top 1% threshold isn't automatically evidence that XRP wealth is becoming more equal. It could actually reflect a growing number of smaller accounts, changing market conditions, and consolidation through custodians. The bigger opportunity I want you to think about here is understanding the difference between the total XRP, owned XRP, and XRP that is genuinely available to the market.

[00:06:54]That's the supply figure that could eventually matter the most. And look, when you start talking about a potential re-pricing, we start talking about the future of XRP and how hedge funds or banks are truly going to use it. The fact is, it looks right now like they already are. They're accumulating lots of accounts. People are putting them into funded areas. We're seeing addresses communicate and more importantly collaborate in order to create bigger accounts. Essentially, right now, what's happening with XRP at an institutional level is exactly the same as what happens in the banking and finance sector. Seems like it's linked.

[00:07:29]Let me know in the comments down below.

[00:07:30]Also, let me know what bracket you sit in when it comes to XRP. Are you in the top 10, top five, or have we got some absolute alpha whales out there that are in the top 1%? And as always, make sure you hit the like and subscribe button if you enjoy this type of content and as always check the links out in the description if you're looking for some exchanges as well as some of our channel partners. Until next time, thanks for watching. I'll see you soon. Bye-bye.