Here's the deal: Exactly 100 billion XRP coins were created from the start. To reassure investors and prove that Ripple wouldn't crash the market by selling all its holdings at once, the company locked up 55 billion XRP in special smart contracts (Escrow). Each month, the system automatically unlocks exactly 1 billion coins for the company's needs. Any XRP that Ripple doesn't manage to sell or use for partnerships with banks is locked away again for several more years.