The XRPL Grants Program

How third-party developers get funded to build infrastructure and applications on the XRP Ledger.

Beyond funding core protocol engineering, the XRPL Foundation — together with other ecosystem contributors over the years — has run grant programs aimed at funding independent developers and teams building tools, infrastructure, and applications on top of the XRP Ledger, without requiring them to be employed by Ripple or any single company.

What grants typically fund

• Developer tooling — client libraries, testing frameworks, and infrastructure that make it easier for other developers to build on the XRPL.
• Infrastructure — block explorers, indexing services, and node/validator hosting improvements that benefit the whole ecosystem rather than a single application.
• Applications — wallets, DeFi protocols, NFT platforms, and other end-user-facing products that demonstrate and expand what the ledger's native features (see Technology) can be used for.
• Research and education — academic-style research into the protocol's properties, as well as documentation and educational content aimed at growing the developer community.

Why an ecosystem grants program matters for decentralization

A recurring theme across this wiki's Governance section is that meaningful decentralization requires more than just distributed validator operation — it also benefits from a broad, independent base of developers and applications that don't depend on any single company's roadmap or continued goodwill. A grants program funded by a neutral foundation, rather than paid engineering headcount at Ripple specifically, is one concrete mechanism for building that broader base.

How the process generally works

Grant programs of this kind typically involve:

1. An open application process, where a team describes the project they want to build and the funding/resources they need.
2. A review process, evaluating the project's usefulness to the broader ecosystem, technical feasibility, and the team's ability to execute.
3. Milestone-based funding, releasing grant funds as the project hits defined delivery checkpoints rather than as a single lump sum up front.

Relationship to the XLS process

A grant-funded project can be entirely independent application development, or it can be the reference implementation work that carries a proposed feature through the XLS standards process toward a formal amendment — grants have, at various points, funded exactly this kind of protocol-level R&D in addition to end-user applications.

Where to find current program details

Specific grant program structures, funding amounts, and application windows change over time; the XRPL Foundation's own official channels are the authoritative, current source for exactly what's being funded and how to apply, more so than any static summary like this one.