Ripple owns almost half of all XRP: These are the richest wallets
- With approximately 42 percent of all existing XRP, Ripple Labs still holds the largest XRP position. In addition to 4.5 billion XRP in liquid holdings, another 35 billion tokens are held in escrow contracts, which are released on a scheduled monthly basis.
- Ripple co-founder and CEO Chris Larsen still owns over 2.5 billion XRP, worth approximately $7 to $8 billion. Notably, Larsen spreads his holdings across eight wallets, some of which have remained untouched since 2013, while others made headlines in 2025 with sales worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
- Trading platforms are also at the forefront. South Korea's Upbit manages more than 6 billion XRP for its customers, followed by Binance with around 2.7 billion, while Uphold holds just under 2 billion XRP.
- What is striking, however, is that Coinbase has reduced its XRP holdings by more than half since summer 2025. A move that appears less motivated by regulation and more indicative of a strategic realignment.
- Whale activity at record levels: The number of wallets holding over 1 million XRP has risen to 2,708 addresses—the highest number ever in the project's history. This growth not only indicates rising institutional interest but also demonstrates that XRP has gained confidence following the end of its years-long legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
- Despite growing demand, however, distribution remains highly unequal. Just 100 addresses control a full 68 percent of the circulating supply, making XRP one of the most concentrated cryptocurrencies in the top 10 by market capitalization. For critics, this raises fundamental questions about the network's true decentralization and long-term independence.
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Source:
- Rich List | Cointelegraph
