XRP: history, founders and key events

Origin story

XRP is the native asset of the XRP Ledger, which went live in June 2012. Its engineers, David Schwartz, Jed McCaleb and Arthur Britto, wanted something faster and less energy hungry than Bitcoin mining, so the ledger uses a consensus process among validators instead of proof of work.

All 100 billion XRP were created when the ledger started. Most were given to a company the founders started with Chris Larsen, first called OpenCoin, renamed Ripple Labs in 2013 and later simply Ripple. Ripple has sold XRP over the years and holds much of its reserve in escrow.

Ripple pitched XRP to banks and payment firms as a bridge currency for cross border transfers. Those sales are at the center of the SEC lawsuit filed in December 2020, the biggest single storyline in XRP's history.

Founders: David Schwartz, Jed McCaleb and Arthur Britto; Chris Larsen co founded the company that became Ripple.