Ripple CTO Reveals Origins of XRP’s Name

Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer, David Schwartz, has shared the story behind the naming of the native token of the XRP Ledger (XRP).

David Schwartz explains why the currency was named ” $XRP”.

X: Not issued by any country
RP: ”Ripples”
= $XRP pic.twitter.com/kOenrcKEGp

— EDO FARINA ? XRP (@edward_farina) February 23, 2024

He initially explained the process of forming tickers for national currencies, where a two-letter country code is followed by another letter. For instance, the currency code for the US dollar, USD, is derived from US (United States) and D (dollar).

In the context of assets not belonging to any country, Schwartz highlighted that the first letter of the code should start with X. This rule is applied to the ticker for gold, XAU (Aurum — gold in Latin).

“Some people use BTC for Bitcoin, but those who care about standards prefer XBT,” added the Ripple CTO.

According to him, from the early days of development, the native token of the XRP Ledger was simply called “ripples,” leading to the abbreviation XRP.

Previously, Schwartz criticized the idea of issuing “Robin Hood” tokens based on the community-approved amendment XLS-39. This proposal involves redistributing assets from the top 10% of holders to the bottom 90% at random intervals.

Earlier in February, Ripple researchers predicted “significant shifts” in the cryptocurrency market structure favoring institutional demand.