XRP
XRP is the asset where the legal file matters as much as the ledger. Supply was created once, releases follow a published escrow schedule, and the biggest repricings of the last five years came from a courtroom.
At a glance
- Unit
- 1 XRP = 1,000,000 drops
- Total supply
- 100 billion, all created at genesis in 2012
- Issuance
- None. Supply falls slowly as transaction fees are destroyed
- Release mechanism
- Escrow contracts release up to 1 billion per month, unused amounts re-escrowed
What the asset actually is
XRP is the native asset of the XRP Ledger, a payment network that settles in seconds and was designed from the start for moving value between currencies rather than for running programs. There is no mining and no staking: validators run the consensus protocol without being paid in newly issued tokens, because there are none.
The entire supply of one hundred billion units was created at launch. That single fact separates XRP from most of the assets in this domain: there is no issuance schedule to model, only a distribution schedule. Supply falls very slightly over time because each transaction destroys a tiny fee rather than paying it to anyone.
The asset is closely associated with one company, which holds a large portion of the supply and develops payment products around the ledger. That association is why regulatory questions about the company reprice the asset, and why the market treats corporate announcements as asset news in a way that has no equivalent for bitcoin.
No mining, no staking, no issuance. The supply question here is who holds it and when it unlocks.
What it is used for
The intended use is cross-border settlement: converting one currency into XRP, moving it across the ledger in seconds, and converting it out at the other end - a bridge asset that removes the need to pre-fund accounts in every destination country. For a payments firm, the capital freed by not pre-funding is the entire commercial argument.
Alongside that sits ordinary exchange trading, which accounts for most volume by value, and a modest set of on-ledger applications: a built-in decentralised exchange, issued tokens and payment channels.
The honest caveat is that measuring genuine settlement usage from the outside is hard. On-ledger transaction counts include exchange internal transfers and market-making, so a rise in activity does not automatically mean a rise in payment corridor volume.
Sender pays local currency
Into a payment provider
On-ramp to XRP
Bought on a local exchange venue
Concentrated in Needs a liquid local pair to work
Ledger transfer
Settles in seconds, fee destroyed
Off-ramp to destination currency
Sold on a venue in the receiving market
Recipient paid
No pre-funded account required at either end
How supply reaches the market
Because nothing is mined, the only way new units reach circulation is release from holdings. In 2017 the associated company locked fifty-five billion XRP into a series of escrow contracts, each releasing up to one billion per month. What is not used in a month is re-escrowed at the back of the queue, which stretches the schedule out over many years.
That mechanism is public and verifiable on the ledger, which makes it one of the more transparent supply schedules in crypto - and one of the most contested, because critics read regular releases as persistent supply pressure while the company describes most released tokens as returning to escrow unused.
The burn is real but immaterial. Every transaction destroys a fraction of a unit as an anti-spam measure. Over the ledger's lifetime this has removed a tiny share of the original supply; it is a design feature, not a supply story.
- 100 billion units created at genesis; none created since.
- Escrow releases up to 1 billion per month; unused amounts are re-escrowed.
- Every transaction destroys a small base fee, permanently reducing supply.
- Escrow contracts and balances are verifiable on the ledger itself.
| Name | Share |
|---|---|
| In circulationHeld by exchanges, funds and individual holders | 60share of total supply |
| Held in escrowReleases on a published monthly schedule | 35share of total supply |
| Company holdings outside escrowDisclosed in quarterly reports | 5share of total supply |
Source: XRP Ledger escrow contracts and company disclosures
Behind the subscription
The rest of this entry is the part that changes a decision: what moves the price, which contract sets it, who ships it and where that can be cut off.
What moves the price
Six drivers, led by the one no other major asset has: a legal docket that has repriced this token by double digits in a single afternoon.
Where it trades and what settles a contract
Which venues carry real depth, why the US listing map has changed twice, and what a dated contract can reference.
Where the supply sits
Escrow, company balance sheet, exchanges, everyone else - and why this distribution makes disclosure days into price events.
How this shows up in prediction markets
Price thresholds plus a family of legal and listing questions where the resolution text carries all the risk.
Included with a subscription
Create an account to unlock the full entry — price drivers, trading venues, trade flows and the live markets attached to it.
Frequently asked questions
- What did the US court actually decide about XRP?
- In 2023 the court held that sales of the token on public exchanges did not amount to securities offerings, while direct institutional sales did. A final judgment followed in 2024, and the appeals were dropped in 2025, leaving that split ruling in place. It removed the existential case against the token without settling every question around the company.
- Does the monthly escrow release push the price down?
- Not mechanically. Up to one billion units unlock each month, but a large part is returned to escrow unused. The schedule is public and verifiable on the ledger, so treat it as a known calendar item rather than a hidden supply shock - and check the ledger rather than the headline.
- Is XRP mined or staked?
- Neither. The full supply was created at genesis, validators are not paid in new tokens, and there is no staking yield. The only supply change is the tiny fee destroyed by each transaction, which shrinks supply almost imperceptibly.
- Why does one company matter so much for this asset?
- Because it holds a large share of supply, runs the escrow schedule, and builds the payment products the asset is meant to serve. That concentration makes corporate disclosures and legal outcomes into asset-level price events, which is not the case for bitcoin or ether.
Primary sources
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