What Is XRP?

XRP is the native token of the XRP Ledger, which is the distributed open-source consensus ledger owned by Ripple (formerly Ripple Labs), a privately-held fintech company based in San Francisco. Ripple runs the global payment network, Ripple Network, on the XRP Ledger. While it operates much like blockchain, the XRP Ledger, in contrast to Bitcoin and Etherium, does not rely on Proof of Work (PoW) and therefore there is no mining involved. XRP instead uses a consensus algorithm known as the Ripple Protocol Consensus Algorithm, through which transactions are agreed upon by a supermajority (80%) of a set of trusted nodes called the Unique Node List (UNL). Ripple was first launched in 2004 by Ryan Fugger, who developed the first version of Ripple, called RipplePay. In 2013, Fugger handed it to Jed McCaleb (Mt. Gox) and co-founder and current Executive Chairman Chris Larsen. The acting CEO is Brad Garlinghouse.. XRP’s average transaction speed is 4 seconds, and because transactions do not need to be converted to fiat and then reconverted, they are significantly cheaper than other crypto-to-crypto transactions. XRP has been pre-mined with a supply cap of 100 billion tokens. Over 300 financial institutions (including American Express, MoneyGram, SBI Remit) in over 40 countries have joined Ripple and its payment network, RippleNet. For a full selection of markets where you can trade XRP for other cryptocurrencies, US dollars, and other fiat currencies, see below.