XRP report from one of the most respected companies: "The most misunderstood altcoins"

21Shares: XRP may be the most misunderstood cryptocurrency on the market

Crypto asset management company 21Shares points out that XRP may be one of the most misunderstood cryptocurrencies on the market. The company believes that the common view that Ripple controls the XRP ledger (XRPL) does not correspond to reality.

The review report released by 21Shares reminds readers that XRP was launched in 2012 by David Schwartz, Jed McCaleb and Arthur Britto and is a native asset of the XRP ledger. The report emphasizes that the main goal of XRP is to achieve rapid, low-cost and reliable transfer of funds. In addition, this asset has been among the largest items in the cryptocurrency market for more than 13 years.

Technical advantages and decentralized characteristics of XRP

According to the report, the transaction completion time on the XRP ledger is approximately 3 to 5 seconds, and the average transaction cost is only approximately US$0.0002. The network processes approximately 1.7 million transactions a day and uses a mechanism based on independent verifier consensus-based rather than relying on energy-intensive mining processes like Bitcoin. Currently, more than 150 well-known verification nodes are running on XRPL, operated by universities, exchanges, companies and individuals.

Fixed supply: All 100 billion XRPs have been minted

21Shares also pointed out that the supply structure of XRPs is different from that of many other cryptocurrencies. According to the report, when the XRP ledger was officially put into operation, all 100 billion XRPs had been minted and new coins were no longer generated. In addition, since a small amount of XRP is destroyed for each transaction, the total supply gradually decreases over time. To date, more than 14 million XRPs have been withdrawn from circulation in this way.

Clarifying the relationship between XRP, XRP ledgers and Ripple Company

The analysis particularly emphasizes the differences between XRP, XRP ledgers (XRPL) and Ripple Company. XRPL is an open and decentralized blockchain network with XRP as its native asset, while Ripple is a private technology company committed to developing payment and hosting infrastructure on the network.

21Shares refutes the idea that "Ripple controls the entire network." The report points out that in the default trusted verifier list of XRP ledgers, there are only 35 verification nodes, of which Ripple only operates one. Anyone can develop apps on the network, and the ecosystem includes exchanges, banks, financial technology companies and independent developers.

Regarding the allocation of XRPs during its founding period, the report reviews that the founders of XRP ledgers allocated 80 billion of the 100 billion XRPs they owned to Ripple for ecosystem development. In 2017, Ripple locked 55 billion XRPs in escrow accounts. Currently, approximately 34 billion XRPs are still stored in these accounts and are gradually released into the circulation market according to a publicly announced timetable.

Application Scenario Expansion: From cross-border payments to tokenized assets

21Shares stated that the main use case of XRP is still as a bridge asset in cross-border payments. Unlike traditional systems where funds need to be transferred through multiple agent banks, currency can be exchanged into XRP in seconds and then into the target currency. Institutions such as Japan's SBI Holdings and Malaysian payments company Tranglo are reportedly using the infrastructure of XRP ledgers to achieve this goal.

However, the report also points out that the XRPL ecosystem has gone beyond a mere payment system. The network has built-in decentralized exchange infrastructure, supports token issuance, and is increasingly used in stablecoins and physical asset tokenization. The report shows that the size of RLUSD stablecoins issued by Ripple has reached approximately US$1.6 billion, while the total value of tokenized assets on XRPL is approximately US$4 billion.

21Shares added that while assets on XRPL do not have to be traded directly with XRP, every transaction on the Internet-whether it is a payment, an exchange, or a token issuance-needs to be paid for in XRP and destroyed.

Fundamental differences between XRP and Bitcoin

The report also highlights the fundamental differences between XRP and Bitcoin: Bitcoin is designed to become a digital store of value independent of the traditional financial system, while XRP strives to become part of the fund transfer infrastructure within the financial system. 21Shares believes this distinction is crucial to understanding how XRP works and how investors value it.

The above content does not constitute investment advice.