Ripple vs. XRP vs. XRP Ledger: What’s the Difference?

Every so often, many people tend to say Ripple when they mean to say XRP, i. e., the third-largest ￰0￱ they are bound under the ecosystem, Ripple vs XRP vs XRP Ledger are entirely different things meant to play different roles. “Let’s be clear, Ripple is different than XRP.” Brad Garlinghouse, the now-CEO of Ripple, precisely made this statement in 2022, establishing the ￰1￱ a nutshell, the best way to think about it is to see Ripple as a company, XRP as a coin, and XRP Ledger as a ￰2￱ apparently, not many people know this, as they’ve continued to interchange one for another for more than a ￰3￱ root of this confusion boils down to the early days of the projects, when branding was intentionally broad.

Let’s talk about it ￰4￱ the Confusion Exists The initial branding and the historical mislabeling of Ripple, XRP, and XRP Ledger are two factors that chiefly contributed to this confusion that exists even now. Ripple, XRP, and XRP Ledger Often Used Interchangeably The XRP Ledger was first launched as the Ripple Consensus Ledger in ￰5￱ then, the network, the protocols, and even the native cryptocurrency XRP, were all branded as “Ripple.” Many people carried on with this unified branding, referring to the ledger and XRP as ￰6￱ grew worse after the private company was ￰7￱ company was initially called NewCoin and later rebranded to ￰8￱ Ripple claims to be separate from the ledger, the perceived link between the company and the coin led to people using terms like “Ripple’s blockchain” and “Ripple’s coin” when referring to ￰9￱ of Mislabeling in Media and Exchanges Crypto exchanges and media outlets contributed to the wrong-footing of investors who mislabel Ripple, XRP, and XRP ￰10￱ media over-associated XRP with Ripple, with some routinely writing headlines like “Ripple’s price crossed $3 today,” for instance, when it should have been written as “XRP’s price crossed $3 today.” In May 2021, Brad Garlinghouse corrected CNBC on this after they listed “Ripple” in top crypto rankings and referred to XRP price surges as “Ripple’s rally.” “Thanks Joe Kernen and Andrew Ross Sorkin for having me on to chat about Ripple’s traction, the differences between Ripple and XRP, and the need for regulatory ￰11￱ the second point…fixed your graphic for you,” Garlinghouse wrote.

Kraken, Binance, and many other crypto exchanges were also guilty of mislabeling XRP and ￰12￱ 2022, a former Fox Business journalist, Eleanor Terrett, called out Kraken for labeling XRPL as the “Ripple network” and also listing XRP under a “Ripple” ￰13￱ known what stirred the confusion, here’s how XRP, Ripple, and XRP Ledger differ from each ￰14￱ Is Ripple? Ripple is a private blockchain company that oversees the development of use cases and the adoption of the XRP ￰15￱ holds the majority of the XRP supply in escrow, but the firm remains structurally separate from either XRP or XRP ￰16￱ Labs Overview Ripple Labs started as NewCoin in September 2012 by Chris Larsen, Jed McCaleb, David Schwartz, and Arthur ￰17￱ after the inception, the company was rebranded to OpenCoin and later Ripple Labs, and then shortened to Ripple, all within 2012 and ￰18￱ founders formed Ripple to provide a better alternative to the traditional banking systems, where cross-border payments could settle in 3-5 seconds and at a nearly zero-cost fee, using XRP and the XRPL network.

So, Ripple is basically a major user on the network meant to showcase the use case of XRP ￰19￱ an incentive for doing this, Ripple was given 80% (or 80 billion) of XRP’s total supply to fund its payment solutions, provide liquidity, and seed markets via partnerships, all for the purpose of promoting the XRPL ￰20￱ and Payment Solutions RippleNet is Ripple’s alternative to traditional payment networks like ￰21￱ is not a blockchain itself. Rather, it leverages the XRP Ledger and XRP coin to provide faster and cheaper transactions across ￰22￱ of October 2025, over 300 financial institutions are reported to have joined RippleNet, including SBI Holdings, Bank of Japan, American Express, Standard Chartered, Santander UK and Spain, and Commonwealth Bank of Australia, among ￰23￱ network processed a whopping $1.3 trillion in quarterly volume in Q2 2025 ￰24￱ from RippleNet, the company also offers other products like On-Demand Liquidity (ODL), Ripple CBDC Platform , RLUSD stablecoin, and so on.

Ripple’s Institutional Partnerships Ripple has scored a lot of partnerships with some of the world’s largest financial institutions, banks, custodians, and fintech providers to use its ￰25￱ mentioned earlier, SBI Holdings, Standard Chartered, and 300 other institutions currently use RippleNet to settle cross-border ￰26￱ September 2025, Ripple partnered with Securitize to integrate its recently debuted dollar-stablecoin RLUSD into the latter’s tokenization platform, allowing investors of tokenized money-market funds from BlackRock and VanEck to redeem their holdings for RLUSD on ￰27￱ central banks of Georgia, Colombia, etc., had also selected Ripple as a technology partner to oversee their CBDC pilot in 2023.

Ripple’s Role in Driving XRP Adoption Ripple has been instrumental in the institutional adoption of XRP and XRP ￰28￱ of its services are underpinned by the coin and ￰29￱ ODL, for instance, uses XRP as a real-time bridge asset for international payments, which is one of the major XRP token use ￰30￱ the ODL service, all the partners that would need to convert their local currency into XRP, send the XRP across the network, and then have it instantly converted into the destination fiat currency, e. g., USD to XRP to ￰31￱ company is also dabbling in other areas like tokenization, institutional DeFi , all of which bring more traction to the XRPL ￰32￱ Is XRP?

XRP refers to the actual cryptocurrency that powers the XRP ￰33￱ is the base currency for the XRPL network, just like ETH is the currency for ￰34￱ as a Digital Asset XRP was specifically created for fast, low-cost global financial ￰35￱ has a maximum of 100 billion coins, which were all created (pre-mined) when the XRP Ledger was launched. So, how is supply being managed, you may ￰36￱ that about 80 billion XRP was allocated to Ripple to fund the growth of ￰37￱ locked the majority of those coins in a time-locked escrow to create supply predictability in the ￰38￱ month, 1 billion XRP is released from escrow, but most times, not all the coins hit the ￰39￱ unused tokens are locked back into escrow for a later ￰40￱ about 59.8 billion XRP are currently in circulation, according to CoinMarketCap ￰41￱ Cases XRP directly addresses the biggest issues with international payment systems.

Today, it is used by many institutions to process fast, low-cost cross-border payments, which used to be a major pain point with legacy systems like ￰42￱ 3rd-largest crypto has also made it easier for institutions to access liquidity in seconds through Ripple’s ODL. Previously, when banks wanted to process an international payment, they had to first pre-fund Nostro and Vostro accounts in various foreign currencies to shore up ￰43￱ ODL removes this need by using XRP as a bridge currency, where the money is first converted to XRP, transferred in seconds, and then converted to the receiver’s local ￰44￱ with other cryptocurrencies, XRP is also used for remittance due to the inherent properties of the blockchain that allow for faster and cheaper payments, compared to traditional providers like Western Union.

XRP’s Speed and Cost Advantages XRP transactions are processed within 3-5 seconds and cost a minimum of 0.00001 XRP, which is equivalent to $0.0000297 at current prices. Meanwhile, transfers with traditional systems like SWIFT can take up to 3-5 business ￰45￱ Bitcoin transactions take up to 10 or more to ￰46￱ speed and cost advantages of XRP are mainly due to XRP Ledger’s unique consensus mechanism, which only relies on a list of trusted validators to quickly confirm transactions – more on this later in the ￰47￱ vs Other Cryptocurrencies XRP is similar to BTC, ETH, stablecoins, and other digital assets in that they are backed by blockchain. However, the purpose is what sets it apart from the ￰48￱ like BTC was created to enable peer-to-peer transactions without any central authority, the primary purpose of XRP is to facilitate fast and low-cost cross-border payments for financial ￰49￱ differs from stablecoins like USDT, USDC, etc., in ￰50￱ the price of XRP is mostly driven by supply and demand in the open market, stablecoins are pegged to an underlying asset or currency, which keeps their value ￰51￱ is a quick overview of how XRP compares to BTC and ETH in terms of transaction purpose, speed, and consensus ￰52￱ BTC ETH Purpose To facilitate faster and cheaper international payments To enable an electronic peer-to-peer cash system To power a programmable platform of smart contracts and dApps Transaction Speed 3 to 5 seconds 10 minutes or more 15 seconds to 5 minutes Consensus Mechanism XRP Ledger Consensus Protocol Proof-of-Work Proof-of-Stake What Is the XRP Ledger?

XRP Ledger is more like the engine that powers the XRP ￰53￱ RippleNet and XRP are based on the XRP ￰54￱ was created by the same founders of Ripple, but operates independently of the ￰55￱ Ledger Basics The XRPL network is a decentralized and public layer-1 blockchain , meaning no single entity has full control over the network, not even ￰56￱ can choose to become a validator on the network from anywhere in the ￰57￱ is open-source, meaning anyone to inspect, modify, and build on ￰58￱ can build smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps) on the ￰59￱ Ledger also now supports Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) through a sidechain, which was deployed in June ￰60￱ meant any Ethereum dApps can now run on the XRPL through the layer-2 ￰61￱ just the first week, the sidechain saw over 1400 smart contracts ￰62￱ Mechanism As mentioned earlier, XRP Ledger uses a unique consensus mechanism called XRP Ledger Consensus ￰63￱ is the reason transactions on the network finalize within 3 to 5 seconds, and also why you cannot mine XRP like BTC, or stake XRP in the traditional sense like ETH or ￰64￱ protocol is based on the Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus mechanism, which ensures that XRPL continues to work normally even in cases where the validators fail or act ￰65￱ are roughly 150 validator nodes on the XRPL network run by Ripple and institutions like universities, exchanges, and independent ￰66￱ validator on the network owns a list of other validators it trusts not to act maliciously, which is called the Unique Node List (UNL).

When a transaction is made, a validator collects and shares it with their ￰67￱ will only be validated after 80% or more of a validator’s UNL approves of it. Interestingly, this whole process happens in the space of 3 to 5 ￰68￱ Contracts and Tokenization Capabilities The recently launched XRP EVM sidechain makes it possible for anyone to deploy Ethereum-compatible smart contracts and dApps on the XRP Ledger ￰69￱ from that, XRPL is able to natively support programmability of lightweight smart contracts at the protocol level through what it calls “Hooks.” At the moment, XRPL does not natively support Turing-complete smart contracts, so all the heavyweight dApps seen on Ethereum, such as Uniswap and Aave, cannot be built directly on XRPL, but are possible through the sidechain.

Tokenization, meanwhile, is very much possible with ￰70￱ is supported natively on the ledger so well that you wouldn’t need to deploy any custom smart ￰71￱ and Efficiency Benefits Over the years, Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism has been a subject of criticism due to the energy-intensive process of mining new ￰72￱ Ledger avoided this problem by choosing to use a federated consensus, which does not require mining. It’s safe to say that XRPL is more eco-friendly and scalable compared to ￰73￱ ledger handles up to 1,500 transactions per second at nearly zero ￰74￱ Ripple, XRP, and XRP Ledger Work Together By now, it should be clear to you the difference between Ripple and XRP and how each of them works together in the ￰75￱ fronts the adoption of XRPL by leveraging XRP and the blockchain in its ￰76￱ serves as the base currency on the XRPL network, which powers all the ￰77￱ Using XRP and XRPL in Its Payment Solutions RippleNet is one example of how Ripple uses XRP and XRPL networks in payment ￰78￱ leverages the XRP Ledger for real-time messaging, clearing, and settlement of financial transactions across borders, much faster and cheaper than traditional alternatives.

Also, Ripple uses XRP in its On-Demand Liquidity service as a bridge currency, removing the need for banks to pre-fund accounts in various local currencies just to facilitate international ￰79￱ Developers Building on XRPL Beyond Ripple Ripple is not the only developer shipping products on ￰80￱ have been other applications launched on the network by independent ￰81￱ are a few ￰82￱ ￰83￱ is both an NFT marketplace and a launchpad for the XRPL ecosystem, where anyone can buy, sell, and mint NFTs on the XRP ￰84￱ developers also created “First Ledger,” a Telegram-based trading bot for ￰85￱ Wallet Xaman is leading a self-custodial crypto wallet for the XRPL ￰86￱ was specifically designed to allow users to manage digital assets on the XRP ￰87￱ Sologenic is an XRP Ledger-based platform that aims to bridge the traditional financial market to ￰88￱ platform allows users to trade tokenized stocks and ETFs using ￰89￱ Protocol Vertex Protocol is a decentralized exchange for trading on-chain ￰90￱ was initially launched on Arbitrum but later deployed to XRP Ledger via the ￰91￱ and Regulatory Implications The tie and mislabeling of XRP, Ripple, and XRP Ledger weren’t without some implications.

Ripple’s profound contribution to the network, including the whopping 80 billion XRP it received from the founders, remains a point of contention for many crypto critics on the claim that XRP Ledger is “decentralized.” Some argued that any single entity, especially a for-profit company like Ripple, with such a massive allocation, has too much influence over the XRP ￰92￱ the regulatory side, the interchange of XRP and Ripple led to false narratives that buyers were buying into Ripple companies, instead of the XRP ￰93￱ formed part of the ￰94￱ and Exchange Commission (SEC) argument against Ripple during its nearly five-year legal ￰95￱ alleged Ripple conducted an unregistered securities offering by selling XRP, claiming XRP was a security because its value was tied to the company’s ￰96￱ Misconceptions About Ripple and XRP The shared history between XRP, Ripple, and the XRP Ledger has resulted in certain misconceptions.

Let’s get the facts ￰97￱ Does Not Own the XRP Ledger Ripple and XRP Ledger may have been created by the same founders, but they operate independently from each ￰98￱ if Ripple ceases to exist today, the network will continue to operate as ￰99￱ reason is that the network is managed by a network of independent ￰100￱ operates a validator node, too, but their rights and control are the same as any other ￰101￱ Is Not Just “Ripple’s Coin” It’s wrong to refer to XRP as Ripple’s coin, and that’s because Ripple did not issue ￰102￱ firm does not own the cryptocurrency ￰103￱ was issued natively to the XRP Ledger for paying transaction fees and as a “bridge currency” to facilitate fast, low-cost cross-border ￰104￱ XRP Ledger Is Maintained by Independent Validators Many people assumed Ripple solely maintains the XRPL, with its validators acting as company ￰105￱ as we mentioned before, Ripple is only a participant in the network with no special ￰106￱ network is rather maintained by a decentralized network of over 150 validators operated by independent entities, including universities (e.

g., MIT), crypto exchanges, and community ￰107￱ Cases of XRP Ledger Beyond Ripple Ripple and its services are not all that the XRP Ledger has to ￰108￱ blockchain has many native functionalities that enable other use ￰109￱ and Cross-Border Remittances Ripple’s ability to provide faster and cheaper cross-border payments with its services is not a prerogative of the company ￰110￱ fact, that ability is an inherent technical characteristic of the XRPL ￰111￱ so, it means that anyone anywhere can also decide to build a similar efficient platform for micropayment and cross-border transactions using ￰112￱ Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Pilots The XRP Ledger can also be used to issue and manage central bank digital ￰113￱ itself proved this by launching its own private network based on XRPL, where central banks have complete control and sovereignty to explore and pilot CBDC ￰114￱ and Tokenization on XRPL If you can recall, we mentioned earlier that the XRP Ledger natively supports tokenization of assets.

That’s a big use ￰115￱ can easily leverage the network to mint, trade, and burn various tokenized assets, including non-fungible tokens and real-world ￰116￱ Future of Ripple, XRP, and the XRP Ledger The resolution of the years-long legal battle between Ripple and the SEC is a big win for the future of the company, XRP, and the network at ￰117￱ the SEC sued Ripple in 2020, we saw how that impacted the Ripple and XRP’s ￰118￱ when both parties eventually filed to dismiss the case in August 2025, the outlook turned bullish, with XRP’s price reflecting ￰119￱ that uncertainty now waived, we expect to see growth across key ￰120￱ Adoption Outlook Following news that Ripple was ending its case with the SEC, the company has been able to onboard more institutional partners, including BNY ￰121￱ perhaps gives a glimpse of more institutional adoption going ￰122￱ Clarity and Regulation in 2025 There is now some clarity that XRP doesn’t qualify as a security, which has paved the way for XRP spot ETFs and institutional investments, which are healthy for XRP’s ￰123￱ can expect to see more ETF launches and XRP digital asset treasury firms in the ￰124￱ Expansion and Developer Ecosystem With all things considered, it is not difficult to predict that the XRPL ecosystem will expand from here, especially with the launch of the EVM sidechain, which bridges Ethereum to XRP ￰125￱ can expect to see liquidity flow into the XRPL ecosystem.