Ripple released 1 billion XRP at the beginning of 2026, marking the first scheduled escrow unlock of the year. According to Ripple's escrow plan, these tokens are released monthly to provide a predictable market supply. This release involved three separate transactions valued at approximately $1.84 billion, with tokens sent to two wallets associated with Ripple, each with a new balance of 1 billion XRP.

The unlock drew community attention, mainly due to a memo that implied Ripple had sold over $8 billion worth of XRP in 2025 for corporate acquisitions and predicted larger token sales in 2026, while also mentioning the development of the stablecoin RLUSD. Some community members mistakenly believed the statement came from Ripple, sparking intense discussion. However, Ripple officially clarified that the memo was not issued by the company, and anyone could trigger the release and add notes once the scheduled escrow release time arrived; the company has no control over additional information.