Price History (USD)
Market Metrics
Supply & All-Time Highs
What is XRP?
XRP is the native token of the XRP Ledger, a public blockchain created in 2012 by Ripple Labs and geared toward cross-border payment settlement. Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, the XRP Ledger uses neither mining nor staking: it operates through consensus among known validators that confirm transactions in seconds at a cost of fractions of a cent.
How it works
The XRP Ledger operates with a distinctive consensus that requires neither mining nor staking. A Unique Node List (UNL) proposed by Ripple and other participants reaches agreement on each block through rounds of voting. The average finality time is 3 to 5 seconds and the cost per transaction is fractions of a cent. The total supply of XRP is 100 billion units, all pre-mined at genesis and released progressively by Ripple from an escrow account with planned monthly unlocks.
Use cases
XRP is used primarily as a liquidity bridge asset in international remittance corridors (the ODL service, On-Demand Liquidity, operated by Ripple) and in pilot tests of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). It has public partnerships with banks in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. The speed and low cost of the XRP Ledger make it competitive against SWIFT for small and medium remittances, although real adoption in institutional flows remains limited relative to the volume of global cross-border payments.
Regulatory context
Between 2020 and 2024, XRP faced one of the most significant regulatory disputes in the crypto sector: the US SEC sued Ripple alleging that XRP was an unregistered securities offering. The partial ruling by Judge Torres (July 2023) determined that secondary-market sales did not constitute securities, but that institutional sales did. The final settlement between Ripple and the SEC set an important precedent in the classification of crypto assets in the US. This regulatory context has been the main driver of XRP's price over the past five years.
Frequently asked questions
What is XRP?
XRP is the native token of the XRP Ledger, a public blockchain created in 2012 by Ripple Labs (originally OpenCoin) and geared toward cross-border payment settlement. It uses neither mining nor staking, but consensus among known validators. The total supply is 100 billion units pre-mined at genesis.
Is XRP a security according to the SEC?
The partial ruling by Judge Torres in July 2023 determined that sales of XRP in secondary markets (exchanges, retail) did not constitute securities, but that institutional sales did. The final settlement between Ripple and the SEC set an important precedent. In 2026, XRP trades freely on US exchanges without structural regulatory restrictions.
What is XRP used for?
The main use is as a bridge asset in international remittances through Ripple's ODL (On-Demand Liquidity) service, which allows financial institutions to transfer value between currencies without needing to maintain pre-funded accounts. It is also used in CBDC pilot tests and as a means of payment in some Asian and Latin American corridors.
How many XRP exist?
The total supply was 100 billion units, all pre-mined by Ripple in 2012. A significant portion is locked in an escrow account with planned monthly unlocks through 2030, limiting the available circulating supply. Ripple's management of the escrow has historically been criticized for its potential impact on the price.
Data via CoinGecko API · Revalidated every 60s · Historical chart in USD