About

XRP Ledger is a blockchain-based protocol used for cross-border payments and central bank digital currency management. It operates on a consensus mechanism based on Byzantine Fault Tolerance rather than Proof-of-Work or Proof-of-Stake models.

History

In 2011, Jed McCaleb began the development of a new consensus network for digital currencies. He approached Ryan Fugger (founder of the peer-to-peer debt relationship payment network RipplePay, now Ripple Payments) in 2012 to further iterate on this concept that Fugger had been developing since 2004. After a discussion with the community, Ryan Fugger handed the platform to Jed McCaleb, which led to the project being rebranded to Ripple. Further efforts by McCaleb, Arthur Britto, and David Schwartz led to the creation of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) in 2012.

Shortly after the network launched, McCaleb and Britto, in addition to Chris Larsen, founded a company called NewCoin, which would eventually rebrand to OpenCoin and then again to Ripple Labs Inc. (commonly referred to as just “Ripple”). Following the creation of the new company, the entity was gifted 80.00 billion XRP (80.00% of the initial total token supply). The next year, Jed McCaleb left Ripple and later founded Stellar.

Sources: XRP Ledger History, Corporate Finance Institute (third-party), and Stanford Business (third-party).

After the XRPL's initial release, Ripple focused on getting financial institutions to use the ledger to process remittances.

In 2015, FinCEN fined Ripple for violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). As part of the remedial plan related to the fine, Ripple agreed to increase its anti-money laundering efforts, obtaining a BitLicense from the state of New York (United States) in 2016.

In 2017, XRP Ledger opted to lock 55.00 billion XRP (55.00% of the initial total token supply) into escrow contracts, which programmatically release 1.00 billion XRP monthly for the company's use. As stated in the announcement, all unused XRP before the following release cycle is re-escrowed and will be released “in the first month in which no escrow currently releases.”

In addition to developing the public XRPL, Ripple has developed several private payment solutions (some of which can use XRP and the XRPL) for institutional clients. Ripple Payments is an institutional cross-border payments solution that features an "On-Demand Liquidity" service. This aims to enable users to remove the need to pre-fund accounts in foreign markets. It accomplishes this using XRP as a bridge currency to send money internationally. This service also includes a built-in messaging system.

In December 2020, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed an action against Ripple, accusing the company of violating securities laws through its sales of XRP. The event led several exchanges to suspend and delist XRP, while MoneyGram ended its partnership with the company. On July 13, 2023, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (S.D.N.Y.) provided a summary judgment that “grants the SEC's motion for summary judgment as to the Institutional Sales and denies it otherwise, and grants Defendants' motion for summary judgment as to the Programmatic Sales, the Other Distributions, and Larsen's and Garlinghouse's sales, and denies it as to the Institutional Sales.” The court also stated that "XRP, as a digital token, is not in and of itself a "contract, transaction[,] or scheme" that embodies the Howey requirements of an investment contract.”

On March 3, 2021, Ripple announced they were launching a pilot version of a private XRPL that would provide central banks a platform to launch and develop CBDCs. On Sept. 22, 2021, Ripple announced that Bhutan’s Royal Money Authority would utilize Ripple’s CBDC solution to develop its own CBDC. According to a November 2023 press release, Ripple has developed additional pilot programs with governments and central banks from Palau, Montenegro, Columbia, Hong Kong, and others.

On Oct. 17, 2022, Peersyst Technology announced the devnet of the EVM-compatible XRPL sidechain. As of January 2024, the sidechain’s mainnet is still being developed.

On April 14, 2023, Ripple launched the Ripple Liquidity Hub, a liquidity management product built for institutions and businesses. Liquidity Hub can be used as a standalone product or an extension of Ripple's cross-border payments product. The platform aims to enable businesses to source digital assets, power crypto payments and operations, and support end customers' crypto-related activities. Liquidity Hub uses order routing to source digital assets across multiple venues to decrease transaction fees on high-volume transactions and reduce the need to pre-fund capital positions.

The XLS-30d Standard Proposal, integrated into the rippled v1.12.0 release in September 2023, introduces a new liquidity provision mechanism. The amendment is designed to enhance Automated Market Maker (AMM) functionalities within the decentralized exchange built on the XRPL.

In November 2023, Ripple announced its Ripple Payments settlement platform, designed to enable corporate clients to make crypto payments without money transmitter licenses. This announcement was coupled with a reveal of Ripple’s partnership with Onafriq, an African fintech company.

In late 2024, Ripple launched RLUSD, its U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, following final approval from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) on December 10.

In October 2025, Ripple announced the $1 billion acquisition of GTreasury, a leading treasury management systems provider.