Ripple, the blockchain payment network notionally tied to altcoin XRP, has begun 2022 past releasing funds from its escrow worth $192 million.

Data scanned from the XRP blockchain by monitoring resource Whale Warning caught the latest consignment of XRP tokens, which forms 1 installment of a pre-planned release schedule Ripple began in 2022.

Ripple continues 55-calendar month escrow schedule

In a web log post at the time, officials explained that they would lock upward 55 billion XRP, releasing funds each month over 55 months.

The reason, they said, was to incentivize investors to keep interest and usage of XRP consequent.

"We utilise Escrow to establish 55 contracts of 1 billion XRP each that will elapse on the kickoff twenty-four hour period of every month from months 0 to 54. As each contract expires, the XRP volition go bachelor for Ripple'due south employ," the web log mail service read.

Ripple continued:

"Y'all can expect usa to continue to use XRP for incentives to market makers who offer tighter spreads for payments and selling XRP to institutional purchasers."

Ripple CTO: No enrichment from XRP demand

Prior to the scheme beginning, Ripple was selling around $300 million in XRP each month. All the same, in 2022, sell-offs noticeably intensified, with Ripple disposing of more tokens last year than any other.

The escrow movements accept further failed to stem a dramatic subtract in the price of XRP relative to both Bitcoin (BTC) and the US dollar. Every bit Cointelegraph reported, XRP/USD cruel to more than 2-twelvemonth lows in December.

7-day XRP price chart

7-day XRP price chart. Source: Coin360

This week, meanwhile, Ripple main technology officer David Schwartz claimed that XRP purchases did non actually make Ripple any richer. At the same time, he described the company's selloffs as "negligible."

XRP barely reacted to the escrow release, steadying at just above $0.19 while other major altcoins fell by around 1%.