The native token of a decentralized open-source blockchain called XRP Ledger (XRPL), but its origin, development, and majority ownership are attributed to an American company called Ripple Labs.
Origin and Country of XRP Ripple Labs, Inc. (formerly OpenCoin) is a United States (USA) company. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company was founded in 2012 and is involved in the development of the XRP Ledger.
Who created XRP?
The initial development of the XRP Ledger began in 2011. The three main engineers were: Jed McCaleb — programmer, later co-founder and CTO of Ripple (left in 2013, later created Stellar). Arthur Britto — developer, very private figure. David Schwartz — Chief Cryptographer (still holds important positions at Ripple, such as CTO).
Chris Larsen joined in 2012 and ran the company as a co-founder (later CEO, now Executive Chairman). Together these four (McCaleb, Britto, Schwartz + Larsen) created the foundation of the XRP Ledger and token. 100 billion XRP were pre-mined (created at once).
What is the ownership like?
Ripple Labs is the largest holder — about 42% of the total supply (about 42 billion XRP) is held in escrow accounts and operational holdings. These are released regularly (about 1 billion per month, most of which is returned). Chris Larsen (co-founder) — personally the largest individual holder, about 2.5 billion XRP (some reports say more).
Jed McCaleb has sold most of his shares. Arthur Britto's holdings are less and less known. The remaining XRP is spread out across the market — among exchanges, investors, and users. Ripple Labs was given an 80 billion XRP "gift" from the founders so that the company could develop XRP use cases (particularly cross-border payments).
Who are the Key People currently working at Ripple? Brad Garlinghouse — CEO. Chris Larsen — Executive Chairman. David Schwartz — Chief Cryptographer / CTO-equivalent role. Others: Monica Long (President), Jon Bilich (CFO), etc.
In short: XRP is not "owned" by any one country or individual. It is a decentralized ledger token, but its creation and major control is tied to the American company Ripple Labs and its founders (particularly Chris Larsen).
