Another common misconception is about the 55 billion coins that are held by Ripple. It's true that Ripple has only released a portion of XRP coins for open circulation. However, accusing them of holding the XRP coins themselves won't be totally correct.
The 55 billion coins are held in 55 escrows, with each escrow holding a billion coins. Every month, 1 billion coins are released as each of these escrows begin to expire. The released coins would be available for open circulation. The lockup was a strategic move by Ripple to ensure there are no concerns of Ripple flooding the market.