The essential facts about XRP and the XRP Ledger at a glance.
A fast-reference summary. For live, up-to-the-minute figures (price, exact circulating supply, network activity), consult a block explorer — figures like price and precise circulating supply change continuously and are not reproduced here.
Asset facts
Property
Value
Ticker
XRP
Total supply
100,000,000,000 (100 billion), fixed at genesis
Can new XRP be created?
No — the maximum supply is fixed by protocol; supply only decreases over time
Supply mechanism
A portion of every transaction fee is permanently destroyed ("burned")
Smallest unit
1 drop = 0.000001 XRP (one millionth)
Consensus mechanism
XRP Ledger Consensus Protocol (federated Byzantine agreement, not proof-of-work or proof-of-stake)
Network facts
Property
Value
Genesis / mainnet launch
2012
Average ledger close time
~3–5 seconds
Typical transaction fee
A small, dynamically-set fee in drops (a fraction of a cent under normal load)
Transaction finality
Immediate on ledger close — no multi-block confirmation wait
Server software
rippled (open source, primarily C++)
Smart-contract-like logic
Not natively on XRPL mainnet; available via the Hooks-enabled Xahau sidechain — see Hooks and Sidechains
Organizational facts
Property
Value
Created XRPL
David Schwartz, Jed McCaleb, and Arthur Britto, in 2011–2012
Company most associated with XRP
Ripple Labs Inc. (originally OpenCoin)
Does Ripple control the XRP Ledger?
No — it is maintained by an open, independent community of validator operators; see XRP vs. XRPL vs. Ripple
