Ripple celebrates 15th anniversary of XRP: major update coming soon

The XRP Ledger (XRPL) has reached a significant milestone. It has been fifteen years since Ripple co-founder David Schwartz began writing the first code for the blockchain network. Since then, XRP has grown into one of the best-known cryptocurrencies. The anniversary coincides with the first anniversary of a U.S. XRP ETF and the preparation for a major network update.

On November 11, 2011, David Schwartz began developing the technology behind the XRP Ledger. This was highlighted by the official XRP account on X to mark the fifteenth anniversary.

Schwartz collaborated with Jed McCaleb and Arthur Britto on an alternative to Bitcoin (BTC). Their goal was a blockchain on which transactions could be processed quickly and cheaply, without Bitcoin's energy-intensive mining process.

In June 2012, the XRP Ledger officially went live. The network uses its own consensus mechanism in which validators reach agreement on transactions. Later that year, Chris Larsen joined the founders. Together, they founded NewCoin, which would later be called OpenCoin and eventually Ripple.

At the time, the founders transferred 80 billion XRP to the company to support the further development of the ecosystem. Years later, Ripple placed 55 billion XRP in a system of locked reserves. A maximum of one billion XRP can be released from this each month, although this does not mean that the full amount is actually put on the market.

The anniversary coincides with another important event for XRP. On November 13, 2025, Canary Capital launched its spot XRP ETF under the name XRPC on the U.S. Nasdaq.

This made XRP accessible to U.S. investors who want to invest in the cryptocurrency through a standard securities account, without having to manage a crypto wallet themselves. The fund was the first U.S.-listed spot XRP ETF and will be exactly one year old on Friday.

Meanwhile, developers are working on the next technical improvement of the XRP Ledger. Version 3.5.0 is scheduled for December 3, 2026. This update is intended to resolve several issues and improve network performance.

An important component is a permanent solution for times when it takes longer than usual to complete a new block of transactions.

Developers previously implemented temporary fixes to mitigate these delays. The new software version should address the problem structurally. In addition to this improvement, the update includes various technical modifications and bug fixes.

The planned change is therefore primarily focused on the reliability and stability of the XRP Ledger, which has been continuously under development since 2012.