Ripple Follows Escrow Rules, Moves $1.1B XRP Without Market Dumping

• Ripple unlocked $1.1B in XRP on May 1, confirmed by on-chain data and Whale Alert tracking.
• XRP volume dropped 35.5% in 24 hours as price slipped toward key $2.21–$2.25 support zone.
• Analysts warn XRP could retest $1.90, citing 0.618 retracement and past support levels.

Ripple handled a big internal money move yesterday, May 1, which was part of their regular monthly XRP escrow unlock. They shifted over $1.1 billion worth of XRP. Whale Alert flagged the transaction, showing 500 million XRP going between inside Ripple wallets. 

That blockchain data confirmed the money didn’t head to outside wallets. This cleared up talk about the unlock possibly messing with the market,

Escrow Protocol Followed in May Cycle

On-chain records back up that those funds came from Ripple’s own escrow accounts. This lines up with Ripple’s standard playbook: unlock tokens on the first day of each month. Ripple usually locks some of that money back up. 

Early signs point to them doing just that during this May 1 cycle as planned.

Circle Bid and RLUSD Stablecoin Context

Talking about timing, this transfer happened around when reports came out Ripple putting an offer to buy Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin. As that report had it , the first offer was for $4 billion to $5 billion, but Circle said no, citing concerns about the price. 

Related: XRP Price Prediction for May 1 After ETF Delay From SEC

Meanwhile, Ripple already rolled out its own stablecoin, RLUSD. That one has hit a market cap over $300 million.

XRP Trades Near Support, Volume Drops

XRP’s market action has stayed in a tight spot right after that big internal token shift. The asset dipped to a low of $2.2126 yesterday, May 1, before bouncing back and hitting near $2.25. 

XRP later settled around $2.21 as reported earlier today. CoinMarketCap data shows XRP saw a small 0.42% gain over the past 24 hours. Its market cap nudged up slightly to $129.45 billion.

Adding to the picture, trading action has cooled off. Volume over the last 24 hours fell hard by 35.50% to $2.26 billion. The ratio of volume to market cap sits low at 1.74% right now. This suggests folks aren’t trading XRP much compared to its size.

Chart Signals Possible Retest Near $1.90

Chart watchers like crypto analyst CasiTrades are eyeing key price levels for XRP. CasiTrades pointed out that XRP couldn’t stay above $2.25. He sees it making smaller price drops. This technical read could lead to the price hitting $2 or even dipping to $1.90.

Key Support and Retracement Levels

That $1.90 level matters. It lines up with where the price found support during the rally before this one. It matches the 0.5 Fibonacci support level and the 0.618 retracement level from that prior move.

Related: Ripple offers to acquire Circle $USDC stablecoin issuer, Bloomberg reports

Beyond price charts, XRP is still the fourth biggest crypto overall. It has 58.5 billion tokens out of a max of 100 billion floating around. Its value if all tokens were out is figured at $221.27 billion.