David Schwartz wrote the first line of code for the core of what would become the $XRP Ledger (XRPL) about 15 years ago, on November 11, 2011.
The official $XRP account on X says the date 11/11/11 marked the beginning of Schwartz’s work on what would later support one of the cryptocurrency industry’s established payment-focused blockchain networks.
Schwartz, now Ripple CTO Emeritus, was one of three engineers, along with Jed McCaleb and Arthur Britto, who began developing the $XRP Ledger in 2011. Inspired by Bitcoin, they set out to build an alternative that would address some of its problems, particularly in sustainability and payments.
The $XRP Ledger went live in June 2012. Chris Larsen joined the group in September 2012, and shortly afterward it formed a company called NewCoin. The company soon changed its name to OpenCoin, then became Ripple. The XRPL’s founders donated 80 billion $XRP, the network’s native digital asset, to the company.
Ripple has placed most of its $XRP in escrow, about 55 billion $XRP, and releases 1 billion $XRP on the first day of each month.
November, a pivotal month in $XRP’s history
The November 11 anniversary marks the start of the $XRP Ledger’s development. Schwartz’s first code in 2011 eventually led to a blockchain network designed to enable value transfers.
November is also a significant month for $XRP, as U.S. spot $XRP ETFs mark the first anniversary of their landmark launch.
Canary Capital’s $XRP exchange-traded fund, listed under the ticker XRPC, began trading on November 13, 2025, becoming the first spot $XRP ETF on a U.S. exchange.
XRPL version 3.5.0 is scheduled for release on December 3, 2026. The update includes only improvements and fixes, among them a permanent fix for occasional slow ledger close times.
