David Schwartz, one of the chief architects behind the XRP Ledger and a prominent figure in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry, has disclosed that XRP’s fixed supply of 100 billion tokens was not arbitrary.
When David Schwartz, Arthur Britto, and Jed McCaleb created the XRP Ledger in 2012, they introduced XRP as the network’s gas token, with a total supply of exactly 100 billion tokens.
Unlike Bitcoin, which relies on miners to mint new coins daily, XRP’s supply already existed at launch, with all 100 billion tokens pre-mined before the cryptocurrency was released to the general public.
One question that is rarely asked is why developers of the Ripple-linked coin settled for 100 billion. However, that question was answered this week by David Schwartz.
First, Schwartz noted that the supply needed to ensure adequate divisibility, allowing XRP to handle micropayments across the network. Notably, each XRP divides into one million smaller units known as “drops,” enabling users to send or receive tiny amounts — a feature that has been part of the XRPL since its inception, even before non-fungible tokens or decentralized finance (DeFi) made “dust” transactions a common practice.
Secondly, the incoming CTO emeritus pointed out that the 100B figure fits perfectly within a 64-bit integer, which can store numbers up to more than 18 quintillion. This ensures that the ledger can process transactions quickly while avoiding rounding errors.
Finally, the $100 billion cap was also for simplicity purposes, as it’s a round number that people can easily remember. Notably, adoption is hindered if users struggle to comprehend the numbers.
Out of the 100 billion XRP maximum supply, roughly under 60 billion are currently in circulation, with approximately 35 billion locked in escrow accounts.
Meanwhile, for some Ripple advocates like the founder of the Black Swan Capitalist, the growing demand for tokenized assets, stablecoins like RLUSD, and liquidity solutions puts XRP at the center of the digital economy. As such, the current 100 billion supply may not even be enough to meet future needs, which could result in a supply crunch.