XRP (XRP-USD) has entered September 2025 with momentum, climbing near $3 after years of regulatory battles. Yet one uncomfortable fact lingers in the background: ownership of the token is highly concentrated. Just 100 wallets control around 68% of the circulating supply. For investors betting on another major rally, that level of concentration raises an obvious question. Can XRP truly surge in price if so much of the supply rests in so few hands?
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Ripple’s Escrow Keeps the Market Unsure
Ripple Labs dominates XRP’s ownership profile, holding about 42% of the total supply. This includes 4.5 billion XRP in liquid holdings and another 35 billion locked in escrow. Each month, 1 billion XRP is released through smart contracts, with Ripple deciding how much to use for operations and how much to relock.
This system offers stability because Ripple often relocks the majority of released tokens. At the same time, the sheer size of Ripple’s holdings makes the market dependent on the company’s treasury strategy. If Ripple leaned toward selling more aggressively, supply shocks could drag on price. On the flip side, steady relocking builds investor confidence and helps XRP maintain its footing.
Chris Larsen’s Billionaire Stash Moves Markets
Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen holds more than 2.5 billion XRP across eight wallets, worth roughly $7 billion. His selling activity is closely tracked because large transactions can move the market. In July 2025, Larsen sold $175 million worth of XRP just as the token touched seven-year highs. This should be a reminder to investors that individual whales can exert real pressure on price.
Yet Larsen still retains 4.6% of the total market cap in personal holdings. This means that even after his sales, he remains one of the most influential figures in XRP’s price story. His decisions to sell or hold are part of what makes XRP’s ownership a double-edged sword: concentrated enough to sway the market, but also a sign of long-term confidence if whales continue to hold.
Exchanges Reflect Retail Demand for XRP
Major exchanges also hold billions of XRP in custody, though these balances largely represent customer deposits. Upbit leads with around 6 billion XRP, while Binance holds over 2.7 billion, and Coinbase manages about 780 million after cutting its reserves by more than half this summer.
Exchange balances are important for price because they act as a barometer of retail interest. When balances grow, it signals traders are keeping funds liquid for potential selling or active trading. Declines, like Coinbase’s recent reduction, may point to changing strategies or shifting user behavior. The more XRP sits on exchanges, the more vulnerable the price is to sudden sell-offs.
Whales Are Growing, and This Cuts Both Ways
In June 2025, XRP reached a milestone with 2,708 wallets holding more than 1 million XRP each. This was the highest whale count in the asset’s history, reflecting renewed institutional confidence after Ripple secured legal clarity in the U.S. Each whale wallet represents at least $2 million worth of XRP, underscoring the scale of capital involved.
Whale accumulation can support price by reducing circulating supply in the short term. However, concentrated ownership creates the risk of sharp downturns if these whales decide to sell. For smaller retail investors, this means price rallies are often at the mercy of larger hands moving their positions.
So, Can XRP Rally?
Despite the concentration, XRP has proven it can rally. Its price is up nearly 400% over the past year, even as Ripple, Larsen, and whales dominate supply. Legal clarity, growing adoption, and speculation around potential ETFs have outweighed concerns about ownership concentration.
Still, the same concentration that has not stopped rallies so far could limit their sustainability. XRP can rally in the short term, especially if ETFs drive new inflows, but the long-term path depends on how Ripple manages its escrow, how whales behave, and whether retail investors continue to trust that the supply will not flood the market.
In other words, XRP’s rich list will remain both the fuel and the risk for its price rallies.
At the time of writing, XRP is sitting at $3.0102.
