Ripple needs reserves to get big players on board (central banks, governments, banks)
I don't think it's fair to include the reserves.
Would you be worried at x2? I wouldn't be at all surprised if Ripple was 10 times BIGGER than Bitcoin by the end of the year. Some think this is a crazy belief, but from what I've seen, heard and from the people I've met; global finance is in for a shakeup on a scale not seen since the introduction of credit cards by American Express, BankAmericard, Diners Club, etc.
You're asking me if I'd be worried at x2, as I wrote
we are already at x2. It's not just XRP reserves held by RL, but privately held XRP interests, sweetheart deals, bulk buyers, forthcoming business allocations not included in the figures you reference. The market cap of the XRP anti-spam token/bridge-currency. (of which even a major bank does not need more than a modest amount) is now half that of mastercard at IPO. That's the reality.
They are not 'blacklisted' by the protocol, they are not unspendable. Either the markets priced that supply in or they haven't. I wager they haven't. The well understood facet of bitcoin is the hard cap of 21 million total supply. As blocks are mined the total supply increases until it hits this wall. No entity owns another 40 million this second that aren't included in common market cap calculations and aren't taken into account by market participants valuations. The idea is ludicrous.
Just because a significant amount of BTC that was privately brought in marshals auction, or held by a hedge fund, exchange etc doesn't mean we erase them from the available supply. Right now you are simply pretending only 30 billion XRP exist in the world when there is 100 billion, based on the presumption they aren't available for 'public' purchase.
