The XRP rich list refers to the league of highest holders of the token. In 2022, according to an article by CoinCodex, crypto exchanges like Binance, Kraken, KuCoin, Crypto.com, and Bittrue are among the owners of addresses with the largest XRP holdings.
Over the years, XRP endured numerous setbacks that affected the perception of investors towards it. Ranked 7th, XRP is one of the biggest crypto assets in terms of total dollar value. XRP has market cap of over $19 billion. The impressive Return On Investment of 5869.26% convinced investors around the globe to hold the native cryptocurrency for the Ripple Network.
The XRP Ledger is an open-source permissionless and decentralized technology. It operates reliably with up to 70 million ledgers. Further, the project is famous in the virtual assets sector for its cheap transaction fee, scalability, and speed. XRPL is carbon-neutral and energy-efficient, the project uses green it often encourages users to follow the same trend.
In 2018 XRP attained its all-time high of $3.8, and ever since the token has mostly struggled to really above $1. The dragging lawsuit between Ripple vs SEC contributed to the struggles of the token. Despite the lawsuit, some investors still retain their faith in the token.
This article comprises top wallets with the largest holding of XRP. Therefore, the rich list of XRP refers to these top wallets. Before divulging further into the rich list of XRP, a cursory look into the history and background of the token is needed.
Founding background of XRP
Occassioned by the fascinating technology of Bitcoin, three developers namely David Schwartz, Jed McCaleb, and Arthur Britto thought about creating XRP. However, these developers were more concerned about the mining difficulty of BTC and it’s heavy consumption of energy.
These developers then thought about creating a Bitcoin without mining. This idea conceived the creation of a distributed ledger. With it, the developers hopes to improve on the shortcomings of BTC. At first, the named the code Ripple.
Worth noting that the ledger came with a virtual asset that would initially be called “ripples”. XRP represented the currency code of the virtual asset, taking inspiration of Bitcoin. At the inception, the appellation Ripple represented the open-source project, the unique consensus ledger, transaction protocol, the network, and the digital asset.
In September 2020, the XRPL Foundation came into existence. The team created the XRPL Foundation to be a non-profit organization with the task of accelerating the adoption of the XRP ledger. Before then, the team already devise the XRP ledger to facilitate cross-border payments. However, Ripple is a stakeholder and contributor to the larger XRPL community.
Impact of Ripple Vs SEC lawsuit on cryptocurrency regulation
As the lawsuit continue to drag on, cryptocurrency enthusiasts hoped that it’s outcome would be a favourable one. Nonetheless, the argument of Ripple in the case that the regulation of XRP is outside the jurisdiction of the SEC brought good tidings.
Ripple in its defence argued that XRP isn’t a security, therefore the SEC lacks oversight powers over it. The firm referenced the speech of an erstwhile official of the SEC who said Ethereum isn’t a security.
The argument compelled legislators to consider the introduction of a crypto regulatory bill that will define the role of regulators in monitoring the sector. The argument strongly influenced the Lummis and Gillibrand crypto bill. In the bill, the two legislators Cynthia Lummis started clearly the role of the Secuirites and Exchange Commission and the Future Commodity Trading Commission.
More so, the bill alongside the attempt of Joe Biden to tap into the growing opportunities of crypto will provide a healthy environment for virtual assets to strive. Crypto enthusiasts are hopeful that the bill will come into effect in next year.
Did XRP founders made the list?
After designing the project, the three founders shared 20 billion XRP between themselves. One numerous occasions, the three founders sold their holding of the XRP token. One of the Founders, Jed McCaleb sold all of his XRP tokens after he left the firm in 2014. Within eight years, the co-founder sold all of its XRP times.
As Jed sold all of its shares for XRP, the two co-founders presently holds a larger part of their XRP. Though their decision to hold on to the token is a strategical move by the co-founder. They are waiting for the case to be reach a concluding end in their favour. If they sell a part of their XRP holding before the end of the lawsuit and it turns in favor of the SEC, the crypto firm will be challenged for selling unregistered securities in the United States.
Due to that, crypto exchanges registered in the US delisted the token. As revealed, the are pointers that the present CEO of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse held a good portion of XRP tokens. Though, there are no traces of the overall amount Garlinghouse presently holds. Ripple is well represented with two wallets on the XRP rich list, similarly there are no pointers if it belongs to any of it’s founders.
XRP rich list
Retail investors are marshalling the supply of XRP, thus leaving most of its supply on crypto exchanges. This segment of investors controls about 32% of the circulating supply of XRP. Addresses owned by retail investors with at least 500 million XRP is about 16. They account for 16 billion of the 50 billion in supply.
South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit is the largest holder of XRP. The holdings of the crypto exchange are worth about 4,103,350,319 XRP. According to CoinCodex, Upbit tops the XRP rich list because its holding is about 8.13% of the total token in circulation. By present market valuation the holding is worth about $1,440,970,396.
Next on the list are the two addresses of Ripple Inc. The first address holds about 1,960,027,012 XRP which is about 3.90% of the total token in circulation. The second wallet which is third on the list has 1,783,635,065 XRP; 3.55% of it’s total supply. The combination of XRP on the two wallets is worth $1.1 billion.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume is the fourth-biggest holder of XRP. Binance’s holding of 1,477,168,712 XRP which worth is about 518.7 million amounted to 2.93% of the token supply of the token.
Additionally, other address owners on the Top ten XRP rich list include Bitstamp with 949,596,747 (1.89%), Kraken 770,000,042 (1.53%), Coincheck 660,979,773 (1.31%), Poloniex 659,598,153 (1.31%) Bithump 600,000,112 (1.19%) and an Unknown wallet with 607,476428 (1.21%).
How the XRP rich list connotes trust in the token despite the prevailing inflation
The top 10 addresses with the largest holding of the token holds about 13,571,000,000 XRP. By the current market value of XRP, their holdings are worth about $4.7 billion. Despite the inflation, the uncertainty clouding the SEC vs Ripple lawsuit and the general downturn in the price of crypto assets, these XRP whales still retain a promising hope in the token.
Presently, XRP is outperforming tech stocks in the last 24 hours. As of press time, aside from Meta (+2.82%), GOOGL (-0.66%), Amazon(-0.67%), Apple (-0.67%) and Microsoft (-1.73%) are all faring well against XRP (+0.20). Amidst the aforementioned issues, XRP is still pulling an impressive market performance which to some extent is repaying the whales’ faith in it.
XRP’s impressive posture against tech stocks adds to the growing sentiment that some notable crypto assets are good hedges against inflation. BTC and Ethereum have contributed well to support the argument of this bias, XRP with it’s minimal effort is doing well too.
The limited supply of XRP will project the token to be a good hedge against inflation. XRP has a limited supply of 100 billion and half of it has been issued. Also, XRP is designed to be deflationary. A deflationary cryptocurrency reduces supply over time, resulting in a limited amount of the token in circulation and ultimately increasing its value.
Final Thoughts
It’s imperative to note that daily, the Ripple team are pushing to expand the outreach of XRP. Worth noting, the team has collaborated with numerous projects across the globe for the adoption of XRPL for cross-border payment. With that, XRP has grown in influence and stature over the years.
Compared to Whales of other tokens, actors on the XRP rich list contributed more than their counterparts. As established earlier, they control about 32% of the total supply of XRP. As stated by CoinCodex, the Top ten addresses of BTC only control 6.2%, why ETH’s holds 24.1%.
Soon, the shape of the XRP rich list is expected to change as the token grows in value. More holders will push to acquire more, while some will reduce their holdings, depending on their strategy. Their faith to hold on to XRP during this difficult period would hopefully be rewarded at when the court gives a final verdict in the Ripple vs SEC case.
At the end of the case, XRP will enjoy a market rally. In the past, the token soared awesomely as the lawsuit goes in a direction that favours Ripple. By then, retailers will get dividends of their faithfulness to the token.