Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), David Schwartz, has addressed ongoing concerns regarding XRP sales and speculation about its supply. In a recent discussion, he clarified that Ripple’s approach to selling XRP is carefully planned, transparent, and ultimately aimed at strengthening the XRP ecosystem.
Schwartz explained that Ripple’s sale of XRP is not just about revenue—it plays a crucial role in funding various projects that drive the digital asset’s adoption. He assured the community that these sales are conducted responsibly, ensuring that they do not negatively impact the market.
Ripple’s vision, he emphasized, is to enhance XRP’s usability across industries, particularly in cross-border payments. Through strategic partnerships and continuous innovation, the company is working to make financial transactions more efficient and cost-effective.
Recently, speculation resurfaced on social media suggesting that Ripple could mint additional XRP tokens. Schwartz directly addressed these claims, firmly dismissing the idea that XRP’s supply could be increased at will.
“No network rule in the XRPL code permits XRP to be created. In fact, network rules enforced by nodes specifically prohibit this,” he responded to a post by X user Pierre Rochard, who had claimed that Ripple could create more XRP.
Schwartz further pointed out that the XRP Ledger (XRPL) is built with safeguards that prevent any unauthorized token creation. He referenced past incidents in other cryptocurrencies, like the infamous Bitcoin overflow bug that once allowed 184 billion BTC to be created.
“Well, not counting the time a bug allowed creating unlimited bitcoin. Something not possible on XRPL because of its sophisticated invariant checking system, an XRPL innovation that could have prevented the Bitcoin overflow incident and the DAO attack.”
Backing Schwartz’s statement, XRPL validator and xrpcafe co-founder Vet reaffirmed that there is no way to mint additional XRP. Adding to this, former Ripple developer Matt Hamilton also shut down claims that there might be a hidden way to create more XRP.
“There is literally no function to create any more XRP. Literally, the code to do such a thing does not exist. Furthermore, there is a check each node runs that ensures that no XRP could even accidentally be created (like the Bitcoin value overflow bug that printed 184 billion BTC out of thin air).”
XRP has a fixed supply of 100 billion tokens, and unlike other assets, its total number doesn’t increase. In fact, it slightly decreases over time because small amounts of XRP are permanently destroyed as transaction fees.
