Recently, a significant milestone was reached in terms of the total quantity of XRP coins that were burnt. Because of this, doubts have been raised about the potential effect that these burns may have on the value of the XRP tokens that are now in circulation. It is interesting to note that David Schwartz, the Chief Technology Officer of Ripple, recently made some remarks in this respect as he weighed in on the question of whether or not XRP burns may effect the value of the coin.
Currently, 12 million XRP has been removed from circulation.
According to the information obtained from the XRP Scan, a little more than 12 million XRP tokens have been destroyed and removed from circulation at this point. This statistic is nothing more than 0.012% of the entire quantity of XRP that is currently accessible, which is currently more than 99.9 billion. It is difficult to fathom that the tokens that have been burnt up to this point may have such a significant influence on the price of the token, given the vast quantity of tokens that are still accessible.
It is also important to note that the 12 million XRP that has been burnt up to this point is the cumulative sum of all the tokens that have been removed from circulation ever since they were premined. Therefore, various tokens have been burnt at different periods, and the magnitude of the burns has not necessarily been very enormous. In light of this, it is possible that this is the reason why members of the XRP community are advocating for the burning of Ripple's XRP assets.
There are presently more over 40 billion XRP held in escrow by Ripple. Burning a sizeable fraction of these tokens might potentially have a greater impact on the price of the token than the 12 million tokens that have been burnt up to this point. However, David Schwartz, the Chief Technology Officer of Ripple, is not of the opinion that this would result in "any real benefits." He also made a passing reference to the fact that the fire of 55 billion XLM coins by Stellar in 2019 did not have a significant effect on the price of the token.
There are ongoing discussions among the XRP community around the possibility of Ripple burning or, at the very least, getting rid of a significant chunk of their available XRP holdings. The reason for this is because there are allegations that the cryptocurrency company is to blame for the price of XRP being unchanged. These allegations are based on the notion that the company continues to dump its tokens on the market.
However, these charges seem to be without foundation, taking into consideration the fact that it has been reported that Ripple's sales of XRP do not have an effect on the price of the token on cryptocurrency exchanges. Considering that the cryptocurrency company is known to carry out buybacks at various intervals, it is possible that the company contributes to the ecosystem's stability in some way.
It is also not a trivial matter for Ripple to burn their escrowed tokens, as the Chief Technology Officer of Ripple seems to imply in his most recent public statements. In the past, it has been claimed that in order for Ripple to carry out these burns, it would most likely need the authorization of validators.
In the past, a former Ripple Director has suggested that Ripple could easily deactivate the master key on the destination account that is responsible for receiving these escrowed cash. However, there are no certainties that this may serve the same aim as the tokens being wiped out from circulation.
