XRP Ledger Rules and Ripple Escrow Define the Token’s Supply Structure

XRP is the XRP Ledger’s native token, while Ripple is a separate company; the distinction clarifies what network rules, escrow and U.S. court rulings say about the asset.

When the XRP Ledger went live in June 2012, it had a supply of 100 billion XRP. That September, the founders transferred 80 billion XRP to the company later known as Ripple. The ledger’s software is designed to prevent additional XRP from being created, and transaction fees are destroyed rather than transferred to another party.

XRP pays transaction costs on its ledger and is used to meet account reserve requirements. The required fee can rise when network load increases. These rules govern how the token works on the ledger, separately from Ripple’s business.

Ripple placed 55 billion XRP in on-ledger escrow in December 2017. The original schedule made up to 1 billion XRP available each month, with unused amounts placed into later escrow contracts. The monthly escrow schedule controls when locked XRP can become available, but does not establish how much Ripple will sell.

A flaw disclosed Oct. 9, 2026, could have allowed a specially crafted payment to create spendable XRP in xrpld versions 3.4.0 and earlier. Version 3.4.1, released Sept. 25, included a fix. No evidence of exploitation on a public network was found.

In July 2023, a federal court found that Ripple’s institutional XRP sales were unregistered offers and sales of investment contracts. The programmatic sales before the court did not meet that standard, and the court left open whether secondary-market sales generally qualify. On Aug. 7, 2025, the SEC and Ripple filed a joint stipulation dismissing their cross-appeals, leaving a $125,035,150 civil penalty and an injunction in effect.