What is XRP Ledger? How It Works & Where to Use It

How it works

Settlement in seconds, without mining.

The XRP Ledger keeps one shared record of balances and orders that independent validators agree on every few seconds. There are no miners and no stakers, so the energy cost is negligible. Four ideas make that work.

The shared ledger

Every balance, order and issued token lives in one public ledger, rebuilt and agreed every few seconds. Anyone can run a node and verify it.

Consensus, not mining

Validators each follow a trusted list of peers and only advance when a large supermajority agrees. No Proof of Work, no Proof of Stake, no block rewards.

Tiny burned fees

Each transaction destroys a tiny amount of XRP, around 0.00001 XRP, to deter spam. Those fees are burned, not paid to anyone, slowly reducing supply.

Fixed supply

All 100 billion XRP were created at genesis in 2012. No new XRP is ever issued, and burned fees mean the supply only edges down over time.

How consensus closes a ledger

1

Broadcast

You send XRP. The transaction is signed with your private key and broadcast to the network, where validators collect it into a set of candidate transactions for the next ledger.

2

Agree

Validators each compare proposals against the peers on their Unique Node List and adjust until a roughly 80% supermajority backs the same set of transactions.

3

Close

The agreed transactions are applied and a new ledger version is validated, about every 3 to 5 seconds. Once validated the result is final, there are no confirmations to wait for.

The layers under the hood

Base layer

The ledger, accounts and reserves

Balances, trust lines and orders are tracked directly in the ledger. Each account holds a small XRP reserve (1 XRP base, plus 0.2 XRP per item) to keep the ledger compact.

Consensus

The XRP Ledger Consensus Protocol

Validators on overlapping trusted lists reach agreement every few seconds. Honest behavior needs no reward, so there is no mining or staking issuance.

Built-in features

Native DEX, AMM and tokenization

A decentralized exchange, an automated market maker and issued tokens (including for real-world assets and NFTs) are built into the protocol, not bolted on as contracts.

What it supports natively

Issued tokens, stablecoins and assets via trust lines
Built-in DEX, on-ledger order books since 2012
AMM & NFTs, automated pools and on-chain collectibles
Escrow & payment channels, timed and streaming payments

The XRP Ledger bakes payment and exchange features into the protocol itself, so common actions need no separate smart contract and stay cheap and predictable.

Adoption & usage

Activity you can measure.

Live, on-chain numbers that show the XRP Ledger's scale and how it is secured, the usage, agreement and reliability behind it, not the price.

View on XRPSCAN

Network activity

Total transactions3.4B+All-time

Daily transactions2.5M7-day average

Ledgers closed104M+~4s per ledger

Avg fee$0.000020.00001 XRP burned

Daily transactions · last 12 months+148%

Rising activity. Daily transactions have climbed sharply over the past year as tokenization and exchange volume on the ledger grew, with occasional pull-backs in quieter months.

Daily active accounts~20K

Unique accounts transacting each day, a proxy for real economic use against 7.6M activated accounts in total.

Security · Consensus protocol

Validators700+Independent nodes

Agreement needed~80%UNL supermajority

Block rewardsNoneNo mining or staking

Supply trendDeflationaryFees are burned

Reliability

Continuous ledger production since the network launched in 2012

The XRP Ledger has closed a new validated ledger every few seconds for over a decade. Independent validators on overlapping trusted lists keep any single operator from changing balances or reversing settled payments.

Nov 2020The network briefly stopped advancing for about 15 minutes after several validators went offline together. It recovered automatically once enough validators reconnected, and the event prompted wider, more diverse validator lists. No funds were affected.

Ecosystem

What the XRP Ledger is used for.

The ledger is focused on payments and exchange, with features built into the protocol. Here is where it is actually used, and how it reaches into the wider crypto economy.

livenet.xrpl.org

Payments & remittance

Fast, low-cost transfers and cross-currency payments are the ledger's original purpose, settling in seconds with built-in bridging through XRP.

Native DEX & AMM

On-ledger order books have run since 2012, joined by an automated market maker that lets anyone provide liquidity and trade issued tokens.

Stablecoins & RWAs

Issued tokens cover stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets, a segment that grew quickly through 2026 to a few billion dollars on the ledger.

NFTs & escrow

Native NFTs, time-locked escrow and payment channels are all part of the protocol, so builders use them without deploying separate contracts.

Where activity sits on the ledger

1DNative DEX & AMMOn-ledger tradingBuilt-in

2$Stablecoins (RLUSD & others)Issued tokensGrowing

3RTokenized real-world assetsRWA · on-ledger$2.2B

4NXRPL NFTsNative collectiblesActive

5ESpot XRP ETFsRegulated funds775M XRP

A protocol built for exchange

Unlike chains where trading lives in separate contracts, the XRP Ledger has an order-book DEX and an AMM in the base protocol. Learn the basics in our crypto basics guides.

Ecosystem at a glance

RWA on ledger$2.2BTokenized assets

XRP in ETFs775MSpot funds

In the Zypto App

Hold, send and spend XRP.

The XRP Ledger is integrated. Self-custody XRP, send it in seconds for a tiny fee, swap to any supported asset, and spend XRP through Zypto Pay.

Available in the Zypto App · native asset & issued tokens

XRPXRP$1.33+1.4%

XRPL stablecoinsIssued on ledger

XRPL tokensTrust-line assets

The XRP Ledger's native asset is XRP. Issued tokens (stablecoins, tokenized assets) live on the ledger as trust-line balances and are held in self-custody, your keys, your coins.

Get XRP in Zypto App

Be the reason the XRP Ledger ships next.

The XRP Ledger isn't in the Zypto App yet. Post the request to your followers and ask them to add their voice, we prioritize the chains with the most demand. Everything above stays fully live either way.

Request on X Browse integrated chains

Accepted as Payment

XRPAccepted as Payment

XRPL stablecoinsNot yet acceptedRequest →

Pay bills, top-ups and 24,000+ products with XRP through Zypto Pay. Transactions settle in seconds for a tiny network fee.

Swap & convert

CChangeNow LLetsExchange SSwapKit ZIn-app DEX

Native on-ledger DEX XRP settles natively on the XRP Ledger. The ledger's own DEX and AMM trade XRP against issued tokens directly, with no separate bridge needed for on-ledger swaps.

Swap XRP to any supported asset in seconds. Zypto routes the best path automatically across these providers and the in-app DEX.

History & FAQ

Over a decade, plainly told.

Key milestones

2012

Ledger launch

The XRP Ledger goes live with all 100 billion XRP created at genesis and a built-in decentralized exchange.

2017

Escrow for supply

A large share of XRP is locked into time-based escrows that release up to 1 billion a month, making future supply predictable.

2022

Native NFTs

The XLS-20 standard adds NFTs directly to the protocol, no external contracts required.

2024

AMM and lower reserves

An automated market maker is added to the ledger, and the base reserve drops from 10 XRP to 1 XRP to lower the cost of an account.

2025

ETFs and tokenization

US spot XRP ETFs launch and tokenized real-world assets on the ledger grow into the billions of dollars.

Key facts

Launched2012

Native assetXRP

ConsensusConsensus protocol

Ledger close3 to 5 seconds

Total supply100,000,000,000 XRP

Smallest unit1 drop (1e-6 XRP)

Base reserve1 XRP + 0.2 per item

Built-inDEX · AMM · NFTs

PaymentsConsensusLayer 1Native DEXTokenization

What is the XRP Ledger in one sentence?

The XRP Ledger is a public, decentralized blockchain built for payments and exchange, settling in three to five seconds for a tiny fee, with no mining or staking and a fixed supply of 100 billion XRP, its native asset.

What is the difference between the XRP Ledger and XRP?

The XRP Ledger is the blockchain, the shared network and software. XRP is the native asset that lives on it, used to pay the small burned transaction fee, meet account reserves and bridge between currencies on the built-in exchange.

How does the XRP Ledger reach agreement without mining?

It uses the XRP Ledger Consensus Protocol. Each validator follows a Unique Node List of peers it trusts, and the network only advances a new ledger when a roughly 80% supermajority agrees. There is no Proof of Work, no Proof of Stake, and no block rewards, so the energy cost is very low.

Where does new XRP come from?

It doesn't. All 100 billion XRP were created at genesis in 2012 and no new XRP is ever issued. Because each transaction burns a tiny amount of XRP as its fee, the total supply slowly decreases over time.

Is the XRP Ledger available in the Zypto App?

Yes. You can hold and self-custody XRP, send it in seconds, swap it, and spend it through Zypto Pay. For live prices and charts, see the XRP price page.

Explore more chains