Ripple Reveals Strategic Growth as CTO Explains Ledger Gap

Ripple Reveals Strategic Growth as CTO Explains Ledger Gap Ripple’s newly released Q1 2025 report highlights a 1.7% increase in its XRP holdings, now valued at approximately $98.6 billion, and hints at strategic acquisitions including the potential purchase of Circle. Alongside these developments, Ripple CTO David Schwartz addressed a long-standing community concern by explaining that the XRP Ledger’s first 32,569 blocks were lost during early software testing due to a bug — not through deliberate deletion — bringing clarity to a mystery that has fueled decentralization criticisms for years. Ripple Boosts XRP Holdings and Eyes Expansion With Strategic Acquisitions San Francisco-based blockchain payments firm Ripple has released its Q1 2025 markets report, revealing a modest increase in its direct XRP holdings and signaling ongoing strategic efforts to expand its influence across the crypto and traditional finance sectors. As of March 31, Ripple held 4.56 billion XRP tokens, up 1.7% from 4.48 billion at the end of Q4 2024. At the current market price of $2.15 per XRP, this places the value of Ripple’s direct holdings at a staggering $98.6 billion. The report also notes a 2.3% reduction in XRP held in escrow, dropping from 38 billion tokens to 37.1 billion. Ripple releases 1 billion tokens from escrow every month, although a significant portion of those are typically returned to escrow to maintain market stability and avoid flooding the market. On May 3, Ripple unlocked another billion XRP, continuing its routine pattern. While these token releases often raise concerns about price impact, Ripple’s practice of re-escrowing most of the tokens has generally prevented significant market disruptions. Ripple’s Expanding War Chest and Acquisition Strategy The sheer scale of Ripple’s XRP reserves has drawn attention within the crypto industry. Bitwise Asset Management President Teddy Fusaro recently remarked that Ripple could potentially “buy many crypto companies outright” with its holdings — a comment that reflects both the magnitude of Ripple’s assets and the company’s growing ambitions. Ripple's Q1 report has already highlighted one concrete step in this direction: the acquisition of Hidden Road, a prime brokerage firm that provides digital asset infrastructure to institutional clients. This move marks a significant foray into the realm of institutional trading, an area Ripple appears keen to dominate. Even more notably, Ripple is reportedly exploring a deal to acquire Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, one of the largest dollar-pegged tokens in the crypto market. Such a move would catapult Ripple into the heart of the stablecoin economy, giving it significant leverage over USD-backed digital currency circulation and adoption. While details of the Circle negotiations remain unconfirmed, the potential deal has triggered speculation about Ripple's vision to become a full-spectrum digital asset infrastructure giant, combining cross-border payments, stablecoin issuance, and institutional trading under one roof. Positioning for a New Financial Era Ripple's continued accumulation of XRP and recent acquisition strategies come amid a rapidly changing financial landscape. Regulatory clarity around crypto assets is gradually improving in the US, and major players like BlackRock and Fidelity have already entered the crypto ETF space. In this environment, Ripple appears to be positioning itself as a foundational player in the next phase of digital finance. By tightening its grip on XRP reserves, expanding its enterprise services through acquisitions, and potentially entering the stablecoin business, Ripple is diversifying its business beyond the remittance market it originally set out to disrupt. The company’s recent maneuvers signal that it no longer sees itself as just a blockchain-based payments firm but rather as a multi-dimensional fintech powerhouse capable of competing with legacy institutions and up-and-coming Web3 giants alike. With XRP trading solidly above $2 and Ripple flush with capital, all eyes will be on the company’s next move. Whether the Circle acquisition materializes or not, Ripple’s current trajectory suggests that it will continue to leverage its massive XRP treasury to expand both vertically and horizontally across the crypto-financial stack. XRP price chart (Source: CoinMarketCap ) Market participants will also be watching closely to see how Ripple manages its monthly escrow releases going forward, especially as XRP’s price continues to climb. For now, the company appears to be walking a delicate line — using its war chest strategically without disrupting the very market in which it holds so much power. Ripple CTO Finally Solves Decade-Old XRPL Mystery: Missing Ledger Entries Explained For over a decade, a mystery has haunted the XRP Ledger (XRPL) community: what happened to the first 32,569 ledger entries? Since permanent ledger record-keeping began at ledger 32,570, the early days of XRPL have remained obscured — a void in the blockchain's otherwise transparent history. This data gap has long been seized upon by critics as a key argument against XRP's decentralization claims. Allegations have swirled that Ripple or early XRPL developers may have deliberately erased transaction history to conceal activity or manipulate the network’s evolution. But now, Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer and XRPL co-creator David Schwartz has finally stepped forward with a definitive explanation. According to a May 5, 2025, post from Schwartz on X, the missing ledger entries are not the result of any cover-up — rather, they were casualties of early software bugs and assumptions made during XRPL’s formative development phase. Schwartz explained that during the initial creation of the XRPL , multiple ledger versions were being generated in parallel as the protocol underwent rapid testing and iteration. Unfortunately, a bug in one of the early ledger streams led to a failure in saving data from the first ten days of activity. By the time the issue was discovered, recovery was only possible from ledger 32,570 onwards. At the time, the XRPL team assumed another ledger reset would follow soon after, which would render the data loss inconsequential. However, that reset never happened, and the team ultimately decided not to wipe or modify the ledger further, fearing additional data loss if they attempted to force a clean slate. Debunking Manipulation Theories For years, skeptics have pointed to the missing entries as “evidence” that Ripple exercises undue control over XRPL and could manipulate the ledger at will. The absence of early records has often been cited in arguments that XRP, despite being on a public ledger, is not truly decentralized. The latest explanation from Schwartz, however, recontextualizes the issue entirely. The loss wasn’t a choice made in secrecy — it was a technical accident during a period of experimentation, akin to the common growing pains seen in many early blockchain projects. Importantly, the bug affected only a narrow timeframe in 2012 and has not impacted the integrity or operation of the XRPL ever since. From ledger 32,570 onwards, the XRP Ledger has retained a full, immutable history — a fact that reinforces the long-term stability and transparency of the network. The clarification has already prompted a shift in tone among many community members, who are welcoming the transparency and the technical detail provided by Schwartz. It represents an important moment in the ledger’s history — the closing of a long-open chapter and the beginning of a clearer understanding of XRPL’s roots. Still, the explanation may not be enough to convince hardened skeptics who continue to question Ripple’s role in the XRPL ecosystem. But for most of the XRPL community and broader crypto observers, Schwartz’s account is being recognized as a credible and technically sound resolution to one of blockchain’s longest-standing enigmas. XRPL’s Evolution Continues The XRP Ledger today is vastly different from the version that emerged from that early experimental phase. With major upgrades like Hooks, XLS-30 (AMM functionality), and the upcoming sidechain integrations, XRPL has matured into one of the most feature-rich and battle-tested blockchain platforms for payments and tokenization. Ripple’s ongoing efforts to enhance XRPL utility — including support for CBDC trials, real-time settlements, and even recent acquisitions like Hidden Road — suggest the company is deeply committed to the network’s long-term development and adoption. ENRICH your inbox with our best stories