XRP, the native cryptocurrency of the Ripple network, has seen its price grow massively in recent months, allowing it to overtake many other large-market cap cryptocurrencies. At the time of writing, XRP is the third-largest crypto by market cap, and current buying trends suggest it might stay there for a while. 

As of January 25, 2025, the altcoin has a total supply of 100 billion tokens, with approximately 57.64 billion currently in circulation. Notably, a significant portion of this circulating supply is concentrated among a small number of wallets. Specifically, the top 10 addresses hold about 20.99% of the circulating supply, while the top 50 addresses control approximately 53.3%, which raises the question about the distribution of wealth in the ecosystem and who stands to benefit the most from the price rally.

The largest XRP holdings are primarily associated with Ripple Labs, its founders, and major cryptocurrency exchanges. In terms of numbers, data from Coincarp shows that out of the 4,840,747 addresses, the top 20 holders, the top 50 holders, and the top 100 holders hold 50.31%, 63.74%, and 71.76% of the circulating supply, respectively.

According to distribution data, Ripple Labs currently owns around 46 billion XRP tokens, although most are locked in escrow. These tokens are released periodically in pre-set amounts, limiting Ripple’s ability to freely access or manipulate the escrowed funds. Even with these restrictions, Ripple Labs holds a considerable amount of liquid XRP. Data from blockchain explorer Bithomp indicates that one of Ripple’s wallet addresses alone contains over 1.3 billion XRP.

Also, Ripple Labs co-founder Chris Larsen is the largest individual holder of XRP, holding over 5 billion tokens, making him one of the wealthiest individuals in the ecosystem. Major exchanges like Binance and Uphold also manage significant reserves. For instance, one of Binance’s wallets holds over 1.3 billion XRP, accounting for approximately 1.33% of the circulating supply. South Korean-based crypto exchange Upbit also holds about 4.38% of the total supply, among a few other exchanges. 

These large-scale holdings by exchanges and Ripple-related entities paint a picture of an XRP ecosystem dominated by a relatively small group of stakeholders. However, when you think about it, these large holdings are not in the hands of any private company or individual that would potentially be at risk of manipulating the price for their benefit. 

Furthermore, the bulk held by exchanges represents aggregated assets belonging to thousands, if not millions, of individual users. As such, their concentration in exchanges does not pose any unnatural risk to the natural price dynamics for XRP.

At the time of writing, XRP is trading at $3.10, having recently reached a seven-year high of $3.38.

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