Ripple (Ripple Labs) is a technology company that develops the Ripple payment protocol, a real-time gross settlement system for currency exchange and remittances. It uses the XRP Ledger and its native digital asset XRP as a bridge currency for cross-border transactions. The company is based in the United States and focuses on enterprise financial solutions.
Within the DeFi Intel graph, Ripple connects to 110 tracked entities, most strongly to Brad Garlinghouse, SEC, MAS.
Ripple Labs is a US fintech company that builds cross‑border payment solutions on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), including the native cryptocurrency XRP, the RLUSD stablecoin, and custody services.
Investors
Andreessen Horowitz VC
Union Square Ventures VC
IDG Capital VC
Sequoia Capital VC
Partners
JPMorgan Chase Bank
Santander Bank
American Express Financial Services
Standard Chartered Bank
Coinbase Exchange
NYDFS Trust (Standard Custody) Custody
Products
XRP Ledger (XRPL) L1 blockchain
RLUSD Stablecoin
Ripple Payments (RippleNet) Payments network
Ripple Custody (Metaco) Custody
Hidden Road Digital asset management
Funding
2013-06 · Series A$250M
2018-10 · Series B$150M
Key people
Chris Larsen Co-founder
Jed McCaleb Co-founder
Brad Garlinghouse CEO
David Schwartz CTO Emeritus
Timeline & market context
Amber line: BTC price over the last year. Dots: dated events (hack/incident red, fundraise green, partnership blue, launch purple, regulatory amber, news grey).
Frequently asked questions
What is Ripple?
Ripple is a payment protocol and digital asset network designed for fast, low-cost international money transfers. It is operated by Ripple Labs Inc., which also created the XRP Ledger and the XRP token.
How does Ripple differ from Bitcoin?
Ripple focuses on interbank settlement and financial institution use cases, relying on a consensus protocol rather than proof-of-work mining. Its XRP token is used as a bridge currency, whereas Bitcoin is primarily a peer-to-peer digital currency.
What is the relationship between Ripple and XRP?
Ripple Labs developed the XRP Ledger and holds a significant portion of XRP tokens. XRP is used as a settlement medium on the Ripple network, but the two are legally distinct: Ripple is the company, XRP is the cryptocurrency.
What is Ripple connected to?
In the DeFi Intel knowledge graph, Ripple is linked to 110 other tracked entities, most strongly to Brad Garlinghouse, SEC, MAS.