About XRP

XRP is the cryptocurrency used by the RippleNET payment platform. Banks and other traditional financial institutions are known for their slow and expensive transactions; Ripple is trying to build a global settlement network, specifically designed to solve these problems and provide a cheaper, faster, and friction-free payments system.

Ripple describes RippleNET as "a decentralised global network of banks and payment providers using Ripple's distributed financial technology, which provides real-time messaging, clearing, and settlement of financial transactions."

XRP is the native token fuelling the XRP ledger open-source software. There’s a total market capitalization of 100 billion XRP.

XRP not only has one of the fastest confirmation times in the industry but also is capable of handling around 1,500 transactions per second.

The current price of XRP

Although the total supply is large in comparison with other digital assets, not all XRP is circulating in the market. The Ripple Labs company still holds a high percentage of the total supply, which is reserved for the ongoing funding and development of RippleNET. 

A big part of the XRP value proposition derives from the fact that a certain amount of XRP coins are burned after every transaction, making it deflationary by nature. Also, XRP requires a minimum of 20 XRP for every new wallet address assigned. 

Like many cryptocurrencies, XRP doesn’t require a whole-unit purchase. You can buy fractions of XRP in fact, a single XRP is divisible up to six decimal points, with 0.000001 being the smallest unit, known as a "drop". 

1 XRP is equivalent to 1,000,000 drops. 

How the price of XRP is determined

A common view of cryptocurrencies is that they have no intrinsic value. 

While this may ring true compared with traditional financial assets, cryptocurrencies do in fact possess enormous intrinsic value. They represent the first time in history that anyone, virtually anywhere with a smartphone or laptop can move value worldwide without touching the legacy financial system. 

The price of XRP is ultimately determined by the law of the market supply and demand. Traders put up asking (selling) and bids (buying) orders and the order book matching process at exchanges creates the current XRP price chart, No surprise: it’s constantly changing.