A new report from crypto data startup Messari estimates that the true market capitalization and circulating supply of the digital asset XRP is markedly less than what data sources currently present.
As depicted on data providers like CoinMarketCap as well as Ripple – the distributed ledger tech company closely linked to the digital asset – XRP’s circulating supply is pegged at roughly 41 billion tokens. But in its report, Messari posits that of that figure, 19.2 billion XRP “may be illiquid or subject to significant selling restrictions” tied to daily trading volume, including "at least 6.7 billion XRP" held by Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb that are subject to an agreement dating back to 2014.
In addition, Messari said that it believes that the circulation figure includes 5.9 billion XRP pledged by Ripple co-founder to a nonprofit entity called RippleWorks, an amount that it contended hasn’t been delivered. As well, Messari identified 2.5 billion XRP held by RippleWorks that are also subject to daily selling restrictions.