About XRP (XRP)

What is XRP and why does it still hold up?

XRP’s been around longer than most people in crypto remember. Ripple Labs launched it in 2012 to move money faster — not as a meme, but as infrastructure. The XRP Ledger isn’t mined; it just confirms transactions in seconds using a lightweight consensus. It’s quick, cheap, and built for banks that never wanted to wait three days for a wire. You could say it was crypto’s first attempt at real-world payments.

How’s the supply actually split?

Everything was created at once — a clean 100 billion XRP. About 55 % sits in escrow, 25 % belongs to Ripple Labs, and the rest, around 20 %, went to the founders. Every transaction burns a sliver of XRP for good. Not much, but it adds up. No mining, no inflation. The token pool only gets smaller, one fee at a time.

Why did Ripple bother locking up tokens?

Back in 2017, people worried Ripple could dump its stash. So they locked 55 billion XRP into time-based escrows. One billion can unlock each month, unused ones roll back in. Anyone can check the ledger — it’s open, automatic, predictable. It’s not perfect, but it’s kept trust in place for years.

Who actually funded Ripple?

The company didn’t start on crypto hype. From 2013 to 2019, it raised roughly $290 million through classic venture rounds. The big one was $200 million (Series C, 2019). Earlier rounds pulled in $55 million, then $28 million + $4 million, plus a $3.5 million seed. Heavy hitters — Andreessen Horowitz, Pantera, Lightspeed, Blockchain Capital, even Google Ventures. Not your usual token investors.

Did XRP ever run an ICO?

No. It came before that whole phase. Everything existed from day one. No public sale, no white-paper fundraising. Over time, holders got some perks — Flare’s SPARK drop in 2020, Evernode’s EVERS in 2024 — but those were community rewards, not cash grabs.

What’s XRP actually doing out there?

Inside Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity network, XRP acts as the bridge. Bank A converts local cash to XRP, sends it, Bank B receives and swaps out — seconds later, done. On the ledger, it powers the old-school DEX and the newer AMM modules. It’s less of a coin you hold and more of a utility that keeps everything moving.

Where do people trade it?

Pretty much everywhere. Binance, Coinbase, Bitget handle most of the flow — XRP/USDT, XRP/USD, the usual pairs. If you skip exchanges, XRPL’s own DEX still runs like it did back in 2012. Centralized or decentralized, liquidity’s rarely an issue.

What’s next for XRPL?

Focus is shifting to sidechains and smarter apps. Validators are becoming more diverse. Pilot runs in Bhutan and Palau explore CBDCs. The XRPL Foundation is steering governance toward community hands while Ripple stays on the compliance side. It’s a slow grind, but directionally clear.

What could go wrong?

Regulation’s always the wildcard. The 2023 U.S. ruling said XRP isn’t a security, but other regions read rules differently. Ripple still holds over half the total supply in escrow — that’s leverage, for better or worse. Liquidity’s also clustered around a few big exchanges. And then there’s competition: USDT, USDC, even central-bank digital currencies fighting for the same rails.

How’s it different from stablecoins like USDT or USDC?

Stablecoins stick to a dollar; XRP doesn’t. Its price moves — sometimes sharply — but it doesn’t rely on banks or reserves. Stablecoins are for parking value. XRP’s for moving it. You trade a bit of stability for reach and speed. In practice, they serve opposite ends of the same system.