Ripple's Escrow Math: Bill Morgan Wants the Final 32.74B XRP Unlocked Sooner ⏳

Australian lawyer and XRP community commentator Bill Morgan is publicly urging Ripple to release less of its monthly 1 billion XRP from escrow, arguing that accelerating the path to full circulating supply would position XRP as a credible hard money asset and remove the supply overhang weighing on sentiment. Morgan's call was amplified on June 24, 2026 by XRP-focused account @Xrp_Guru1, who quoted him as saying, "The sooner it is all released from escrow + circulating supply is 100% — the quicker XRP will become the best hard money."

The structural backdrop is precise: 32.74 billion XRP remain locked in escrow, and at the current monthly release pace, full circulation would not be reached for roughly nine years. Ripple established the escrow system in 2017, placing 55 billion XRP into 55 separate on-ledger contracts, each programmed to release 1 billion XRP per month, with unused portions typically returned to escrow. The math of that design is the core of Morgan's argument, since the slower the unlock schedule, the longer a measurable supply overhang persists in market calculations.

Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz has previously set a clear boundary on how far the company is willing to go, signaling that Ripple will not compromise operational flexibility simply to speed up circulation. That stance frames the current community split: supporters of Morgan's position view faster unlocking as a sentiment catalyst, while others contend that preserving the predictable monthly release schedule remains essential to market stability. The debate has surfaced on social media and within XRP-focused forums, with participants weighing the trade-off between a compressed timeline to full circulation and the discipline of the existing contract structure.

Morgan's framing is not a new critique of escrow mechanics, but the specifics of his push — including the explicit nine-year reference and the hard money characterization — have sharpened community discussion around whether Ripple retains both the incentive and the contractual flexibility to alter the cadence. With 32.74 billion XRP still locked and the current pace extended, the timeline itself has become the focal point of the argument, and the question now is whether Ripple will respond to the pressure or maintain its established release schedule.