Prominent XRP commentator Bill Morgan is urging Ripple to unlock tokens at a faster pace, with 32.74 billion XRP still locked inside the escrow program. He argues that re-locking a smaller monthly supply would benefit the entire ecosystem.

The plea reignites a long-running community debate over how quickly XRP should reach full circulation.

What Bill Morgan Is Asking Ripple to Do

The XRP escrow is a programmatic system that releases one billion tokens to Ripple on the first day of every month. The company then decides how much to redistribute into the market and how much to return to escrow for future operational and institutional needs.

Bill Morgan said Ripple should release more of the monthly billion and re-lock a smaller portion across each cycle. As a result, the network would reach full circulation more quickly over the next several years.

“Ripple should release more of the 1 billion each month and not lock so much back in escrow. The sooner it is all released from escrow and the circulating supply is 100% the quicker XRP will become the best hard money,” Morgan said on X.

His argument rests on supply transparency. A faster release schedule would remove uncertainty about Ripple’s long-term distribution.

Furthermore, full circulation would help XRP behave more like a fixed-supply asset, which Morgan and several other commentators see as critical for institutional adoption over time.

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Some estimates suggest the current pace could take nearly nine years to fully distribute the escrowed XRP.

However, determining an exact timeline remains difficult since the amount re-locked changes from month to month based on Ripple’s internal business and treasury needs.

“It’s hard to predict because you have to make assumptions about how much XRP Ripple uses and how much gets put back into subsequent escrow months… For XRP, Ripple’s escrows unlocking gives Ripple XRP that it can use. Ripple certainly might continue to do all kiknds of things with XRP that have effects without escrows unlocking, but it seems reasonable to think that things will change in some ways,” said Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz.

How Ripple Defends the Current Escrow Plan

Ripple’s approach is structured around monthly releases through the escrow program. On June 1, the company unlocked 1 billion XRP through three separate transactions valued at over $1.33 billion. Furthermore, the company later returned a substantial share of those tokens to escrow.

David Schwartz has previously defended the model. He explained that Ripple voluntarily relocks XRP so it does not need to be held immediately for business operations or institutional activity in both the United States and global markets.

The current supply picture shows the scale of the question. Approximately 67.22 billion XRP are circulating globally across exchanges and self-custody wallets.

Meanwhile, Ripple still controls roughly 32.74 billion XRP in escrow, representing a significant share of the token’s theoretical maximum supply.

Some holders have floated an even more aggressive option. They argue Ripple should simply burn its escrow reserves to permanently reduce supply.

However, Schwartz publicly rejected the idea, citing Stellar’s token burn as an example of a measure that produced only short-lived market effects.

The community itself remains split on the path forward. Many holders support Ripple’s measured distribution model, viewing predictability as a strength for institutional partners.

Others align with Morgan and prefer faster releases, arguing that reduced escrow holdings would calm long-standing market concerns about supply overhang.

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Source: BeInCrypto