Worth clarifying: XRP is not Ripple. And the XRP Ledger is not XRP.
If this confuses you, don't worry—almost everyone gets mixed up. Let me explain it as if it were a highway.
The XRP Ledger is the highway
The network everything moves across. It's open and has no owner.
XRP is the highway's currency
It's used to pay the toll (which is tiny and gets destroyed when paid) and as a bridge to exchange one currency for another in seconds, without going through a bank.
Ripple is a company that uses the highway
It builds businesses on top of it, mainly payments between companies and banks in different countries. It uses the road, but it doesn't own it. This is what people get confused about most.
Validators are the traffic wardens
They check that each transaction is valid and vote on improvements to the highway. Without enough votes, an improvement doesn't go through.
RLUSD is a digital dollar
It's issued by Ripple. 1 RLUSD is worth 1 dollar. It travels along the highway, but it's not XRP.
Escrow is Ripple's vault
Ripple has a lot of XRP locked away. Each month, some of it is released, and whatever isn't used is locked away again. So when you read “Ripple unlocks 1 billion XRP,” don't panic: that's what this is.
ETFs and Evernorth are the gateway from the stock market
ETFs are funds you buy through your usual broker. Evernorth is a publicly traded company whose business is holding XRP. In both cases, there's XRP behind the scenes, without wallets or keys.
IN SUMMARY: The highway is the XRPL. What travels along it and pays the toll is XRP. Everything else uses it, monitors it, or connects it to traditional money. If you remember this, you already know more than half the people who have opinions about XRP.
$XRP
If this confuses you, don't worry—almost everyone gets mixed up. Let me explain it as if it were a highway.
The XRP Ledger is the highway
The network everything moves across. It's open and has no owner.
XRP is the highway's currency
It's used to pay the toll (which is tiny and gets destroyed when paid) and as a bridge to exchange one currency for another in seconds, without going through a bank.
Ripple is a company that uses the highway
It builds businesses on top of it, mainly payments between companies and banks in different countries. It uses the road, but it doesn't own it. This is what people get confused about most.
Validators are the traffic wardens
They check that each transaction is valid and vote on improvements to the highway. Without enough votes, an improvement doesn't go through.
RLUSD is a digital dollar
It's issued by Ripple. 1 RLUSD is worth 1 dollar. It travels along the highway, but it's not XRP.
Escrow is Ripple's vault
Ripple has a lot of XRP locked away. Each month, some of it is released, and whatever isn't used is locked away again. So when you read “Ripple unlocks 1 billion XRP,” don't panic: that's what this is.
ETFs and Evernorth are the gateway from the stock market
ETFs are funds you buy through your usual broker. Evernorth is a publicly traded company whose business is holding XRP. In both cases, there's XRP behind the scenes, without wallets or keys.
IN SUMMARY: The highway is the XRPL. What travels along it and pays the toll is XRP. Everything else uses it, monitors it, or connects it to traditional money. If you remember this, you already know more than half the people who have opinions about XRP.
$XRP