XRP is one of the top cryptocurrencies on the market. A project with a long and also quite controversial history that has become known to almost every investor in the cryptocurrency world. Ripple has a large group of supporters, the so-called ”Ripple Army”, but also many detractors. Let’s go back in time and take a look at the basis of this coin’s existence.
A brief history of Ripple (XRP)
To talk about the origins of XRP, we need to go back to the beginning of the Ripple company, which dates back to 2004. Back then, under the name RipplePay, there was an initiative to create a network of financial services based on peer-to-peer transactions. This means: without the intervention of financial institutions and banks.
Over time, however, the rise and growing popularity of Bitcoin (BTC) made all of Ripple’s goals more achievable. This forced the owners of Ripple to make some fundamental changes. In 2011, Jed McCaleb joined the team. He was a well-known figure in the emerging blockchain world. Among other things, he became known for setting up the infamous Mt.Gox exchange.
McCaleb later hired Chris Larsen. Currently, Chris is still one of the leading figures and is still on the board of directors of the company. Together they decided to create an intermediary platform for exchanging Bitcoin. The idea was that Bitcoin would be the primary currency of the network. However, the Ripple community did not accept this idea.
This forced the Ripple authorities to completely reverse their strategy. In January 2013, the proprietary XRP tokens were released. Due to disputes over the future of the company, Jed McCaleb left Ripple at the turn of 2013 and began his adventure with the cryptocurrency Stellar Lumens (XLM) shortly thereafter.
Meanwhile, Ripple’s management has once again reversed course. They decided to turn their decentralized platform, into a centralized platform and establish themselves in the global banking system.
Banking sector
Ripple has decided to merge the world of cryptocurrencies with the traditional banking system. Currently, the Ripple team is working with national treasuries to support them in creating virtual currencies for central banks (CBDCs).
RippleNet is also used to create applications for rapid international transactions. One of the best known Ripple customers is the Spanish bank Santander.
Ripple is also a partner of MoneyGram, one of the world’s largest money transfer companies.
Ripple XRP price development
To talk about the development of the XRP price, it should be mentioned that the total number of tokens issued by Ripple Labs is as high as 100 billion. An additional fact that has a significant impact on the perception of XRP in the investment community is that 80% of the tokens were initially held in Ripple’s reserves. To date, it is estimated that these reserves have shrunk to about 45%. Nevertheless, this is a significant amount of assets that is still held by the developers.
XRP reached, at the time of writing, its All Time High on January 4 2018 at $3,317. After that day, the price of Ripple saw a significant drop and, after a very long period of consolidation, made a big move in the second half of November 2020. Unfortunately, the famous SEC lawsuit largely halted the growing positive sentiment towards XRP.
Recognition of Ripple (XRP) as a result may significantly slow the adoption of the cryptocurrency. However, the potential victory of Ripple supporters could become a strong driving force for further price increases.
