Author: Marcel Deer, Cointelegraph

Translated by: Felix, PANews

1. Ripple Labs

Ripple Labs is currently the largest holder of XRP, controlling approximately 42% of the total supply of 100 billion XRP. This is not surprising, as it is the company that developed the XRP distributed ledger and created the XRP digital currency.

The San Francisco-based company primarily divides its massive XRP holdings into two categories:

• 4.5 billion XRP as liquid assets for operations

• 35 billion locked in escrow accounts.

Ripple operates an escrow release system that unlocks a certain amount of XRP each month. Typically, 1 billion XRP is released each month through the smart contract mechanism on the XRP distributed ledger.

This is a way to manage supply and maintain price stability. The released funds are used to finance Ripple's operational expenses and provide liquidity for its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service.

As part of prudent fund management, Ripple does not inject new XRP into the market every month. Instead, 60% or more of the funds unlocked each month are re-locked, as the company's operational costs do not require all the funds.

In an extreme example, if Ripple stopped re-locking tokens, all 35 billion in escrow would be exhausted in just three years.

The current re-locking pattern means that XRP may still hold the top position in XRP holdings for several years to come. For many crypto users, such large-scale control over supply is unsettling. The 42% control gives it unprecedented influence over market dynamics.

High centralization is essentially a double-edged sword; while it provides flexibility, it also raises concerns about decentralization and the spirit it advocates.

Note: There are currently over 6.6 million active XRP wallets; however, many of these may hold very small or dormant amounts. Additionally, a significant portion of these wallets may belong to repeat users who have multiple addresses. So in reality, the global number of XRP holders may be less than 1 million.

2. Chris Larsen's Billion-Dollar Empire

Chris Larsen, co-founder and executive chairman of Ripple, is the largest individual holder of XRP, with over 2.5 billion XRP worth approximately $7 billion.

He has diversified his XRP holdings across eight different crypto wallets, all of which are marked by blockchain explorers.

Among the eight wallets, wallets 1 to 4 still hold slightly over 500 million XRP and have never had any outgoing transactions. These funds were granted to him as a founder in 2013. However, his wallet 5 has been selling throughout 2025, reducing its XRP holdings from 500 million to 280 million.

In July 2025, Chris Larsen conducted a massive sell-off, transferring $175 million worth of XRP to exchanges after July 17, a move that made headlines. This sell-off coincided with XRP reaching a seven-year high, breaking the $3 mark.

However, the total amount of XRP held by Chris Larsen still accounts for 4.6% of the entire XRP market cap. This not only makes him one of the wealthiest holders of XRP but also one of the richest individuals in the crypto space.

Even as an individual, the amount of XRP he holds is enough to significantly influence market dynamics.

ZachXBT pointed out on platform X: "The wallets associated with Chris Larsen now hold only 2.81 billion XRP ($8.4 billion)."

Note: To enter the top 10% of XRP holders, you only need 2,396 XRP, which was about $7,000 as of August 2025.

3. Exchange Giants Holding XRP

During daily trading activities or for storage, billions of dollars in customer funds are held on exchange platforms. This has allowed some of the world's most popular exchanges to rank among the top holders of XRP.

The South Korean exchange Upbit is the leader in XRP trading, holding approximately 6 billion XRP. This indicates extremely strong demand from retail investors in South Korea, along with significant institutional trading volume.

Additionally, Binance ranks second on the exchange list, with multiple custody wallets holding over 2.7 billion XRP. Similarly, Uphold recently held nearly 2 billion XRP, followed closely by Coinbase, which holds 780 million XRP.

Interestingly, since the second quarter of 2025, Coinbase's holdings have significantly decreased. This is likely due to strategic adjustments rather than potential regulatory caution, especially given that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission dropped its lawsuit against Ripple Labs in early August 2025. This has given XRP unprecedented legal status in the U.S.

Despite this, Coinbase cut its holdings by 57% within a month, while its competitors continued to increase their reserves.

It is worth noting that exchanges primarily hold customer assets rather than institutional trading positions. Therefore, understanding which exchanges hold large amounts of XRP can provide insights into retail holdings and demand, rather than institutional control.

Note: In 2025, just 100 addresses controlled approximately 68% of the circulating supply of XRP. This gives it one of the highest concentrations among top market cap cryptocurrencies.

4. Whales Accumulate Record Amounts of XRP

2025 is a watershed year for XRP. It has transformed from a cryptocurrency "orphaned" by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into an asset with clear legal status.

As whales accumulate XRP, their momentum is increasing. In June 2025, XRP reached another milestone: the number of wallet addresses holding over 1 million XRP reached 2,708. This is the highest level in XRP's nearly 12-year history.

At 2025 prices, each whale wallet holds XRP worth over $2 million. This reflects institutional investors' confidence in the asset, with the daily active address count on the XRP ledger climbing to 295,000 in June 2025.

The surge in active addresses indicates interest from both retail and institutional investors. This number is nearly seven times the average of the past three months (35,000 to 40,000 active addresses).

XRPScan allows you to glimpse the holdings leaderboard, where the top wallets include 5 billion XRP held in escrow by Ripple. Additionally, it can be seen that the well-known wallets on the leaderboard are associated with globally recognized exchanges, with only two anonymous trader wallets making it into the top 20.

From the 2025 XRP holdings leaderboard, it is clear that token ownership is highly concentrated.

Ripple Labs dominates across various metrics, including Larsen, who holds over $8 billion worth of XRP.

This raises concerns about decentralization, especially in the context of record whale accumulation and institutional wallet growth. However, after a five-year lawsuit, legal clarity is enhancing institutional investors' confidence in XRP.

Exchanges are also accumulating record levels of funds, with customer custody deposits causing these numbers to rise on the holdings leaderboard. This metric indicates that despite concerns, token ownership remains attractive to retail investors.

Related Articles: Revealing the ETH Holdings Leaderboard: Who Owns the Most ETH in 2025?

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