Share this article
Ripple CTO Says Majority Vote Would Force the Burning of Billions in XRP
The Ripple exec was responding to a question asking whether a majority vote could force the destruction of XRP held in escrow.
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 10:38 a.m. Published Dec 4, 2020, 12:03 p.m.
Ripple Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz tweeted the community could force the burning of billions of the protocol's native XRP tokens held in escrow to prevent the drop in price that would likely occur should those billions in frozen tokens ever flood the market.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
- On Dec. 2, a Twitter user asked the CTO, “If Nodes, validators and the community at large got together and we agree that it's better for the community to burn the 50 billion XRP Ripple has in escrows would that be possible?”
- Responding to the tweet, David Schwartz implied that majority rule would win in such a decision. "Yes. There would be nothing Ripple could do to stop that from happening. Public blockchains are very democratic. If the majority wants a rules change, there is nothing the minority can do to stop them," Schwartz commented in response.
- Ripple’s XRP sales have been declining after Ripple stopped selling tokens to exchanges. The escrow account held approximately 48.9 billion tokens at the start of 2020.
- As there are currently 45.3 billion tokens in circulation, a sudden release of a sizable portion of those escrowed tokens could cause the price of XRP to plunge.
- XRP was trading at 60 cents during the time of publication on Friday. The price of the token has risen more than 160% in the past 12 months.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Japan’s Higher Rates Puts Bitcoin in the Crosshairs of a Yen Carry Unwind
A stronger yen typically coincides with de-risking across macro portfolios, and that dynamic could tighten liquidity conditions that recently helped bitcoin rebound from November’s lows.
What to know:
- The Bank of Japan is expected to raise interest rates to 0.75% at its December meeting, the highest since 1995, affecting global markets including cryptocurrencies.
- A stronger yen could lead to de-risking in macro portfolios, impacting liquidity conditions that have supported bitcoin's recent recovery.
- Governor Kazuo Ueda indicated a high probability of a rate hike, with officials prepared for further tightening if their economic outlook supports it.
Top Stories
