A significant amount of previously locked XRP has been returned to users after a network-wide scan for expired escrows. Adam, founder of the decentralized exchange First Ledger, conducted a comprehensive scan of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) to identify escrows whose time conditions had passed but were never completed. The recovery totaled 750,218 XRP, worth over $1 million at current prices. First Ledger now runs regular scans to proactively release eligible funds.
Vet, an XRPL validator, confirmed the figures, noting that most of the locked funds belonged to ordinary community members who had set time-based conditions years ago and either forgot about them or didn't know how to claim them. The XRP Ledger's escrow system requires a specific EscrowFinish transaction to release funds after a timelock expires; if not claimed within a secondary deadline, the escrow expires entirely and can only be returned to the original sender via a cancellation transaction.
This escrow recovery coincides with a broader surge in network activity. Data shows deposits into automated market makers hit an all-time high of 70,735 on February 28. Furthermore, AccountSet transactions, used for updating account settings, reached a record 114,690 on March 20. A spike in error messages related to insufficient XRP reserves—over 370,000 on March 18, the highest in three years—suggests an influx of new users encountering the network's minimum balance requirements for the first time.
Concurrently, the XRP Ledger has processed over 4.28 billion total transactions, with daily activity averaging close to 2 million. In the last day alone, about 2.5 million transactions were processed. Wallet composition data reveals broad participation: approximately 5.66 million wallets hold less than 100 XRP, while over 32,000 "whale" wallets hold more than 100,000 XRP.
Despite this robust on-chain activity, the price of XRP shows weakness, trading near $1.44 and having fallen below key support levels. Analysts note a growing gap between strong network usage and soft price performance, with buyers struggling to regain control. The price needs to reclaim the $1.452 to $1.465 range to signal a potential recovery, while a break below $1.4236 could lead to a further decline toward $1.387.
