Origins: The XRP Ledger Before the Ripple Company
Ripple's history begins before the company itself. In 2011, David Schwartz, Jed McCaleb, and Arthur Britto started developing what would become the XRP Ledger. The network was completed and launched in June 2012. In September 2012, the founders were joined by Chris Larsen and created a company initially called NewCoin, which was quickly renamed OpenCoin. The creators of the XRP Ledger then allocated 80 billion XRP to this new company to develop use cases around the network and the asset.
OpenCoin became Ripple Labs in 2013, and the company's name was gradually shortened to Ripple. This timeline is important because it allows for the distinction between three often-confused elements: Ripple, the company; XRP, the digital asset; and the XRP Ledger, the public open-source network.
From its early years, Ripple did not aim to build a parallel bank. Instead, its positioning was to provide banks and financial institutions with an infrastructure capable of improving cross-border payments, payment messaging, settlement, and later, liquidity.
Contract, Partnership, Pilot: Why the Words Matter
There is no public registry providing the text of all commercial contracts signed by Ripple since its creation. Available announcements use different terms: agreement, partnership, client, RippleNet member, pilot, real-money test, commercial deployment, or multi-year contract.
XRP Radar does not automatically transform each announcement into a 'banking contract.' When a formal contract or agreement is publicly documented, we signal this. When public documents only show a pilot or adherence to the network, we use this more cautious qualification.
Another essential distinction: using Ripple technology does not necessarily mean using XRP. xCurrent, for example, could improve banking messaging and settlement without making XRP a mandatory component. In contrast, xRapid and On-Demand Liquidity, now integrated into Ripple's payment suite, were designed to use XRP as an intermediate liquidity asset in certain corridors.
2016: Ripple Moves from Laboratories to Banks
2016 marked one of the first institutional turning points. Ripple announced that Santander, UniCredit, UBS, ReiseBank, CIBC, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, and ATB Financial were among the institutions adopting its technology to improve cross-border payments. Ripple described real-money pilots and a gradual shift towards commercial deployments.
The same year, Standard Chartered, National Australia Bank, Mizuho Financial Group, BMO Financial Group, Siam Commercial Bank, and Shanghai Huarui Bank also joined Ripple's announced client or pilot network.
In September 2016, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Santander, UniCredit, Standard Chartered, Westpac, and Royal Bank of Canada became founding members of the Global Payments Steering Group, with CIBC also a member. This group was intended to establish rules and standards for interbank payments using the Ripple infrastructure. It was a governance and normalization structure, not proof that each of these banks was using XRP in production.
2017: American Express and Santander Open a Commercial Corridor
In November 2017, American Express announced with Ripple and Santander a cross-border B2B payments service initially linking the United States and the United Kingdom. American Express FX International Payments integrated RippleNet so that non-card payments could be routed to Santander UK accounts with greater visibility and accelerated settlement.
This agreement was significant because it was no longer just a laboratory test: American Express spoke of commercially available blockchain payments for its business clients.
2018: Santander One Pay FX, PNC, and the First Central Bank Agreement
In April 2018, Santander launched One Pay FX in Spain, the UK, Brazil, and Poland. The service, based on Ripple's xCurrent technology, allowed for same-day or next-day international transfers in many cases and displayed the received amount to the client before sending. Santander described One Pay FX as the first blockchain-based international money transfer service launched simultaneously in several countries.
In September 2018, PNC Treasury Management joined RippleNet. PNC announced that its commercial clients would be able to receive real-time cross-border payments. Again, the announcement referred to the Ripple payment infrastructure; it did not mean that PNC necessarily used XRP for each transaction.
2018 also saw a major event on the public sector side. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, now the Saudi Central Bank, signed an agreement with Ripple to create a pilot program allowing Saudi banks to explore xCurrent. Ripple presented this program as the first pilot of its kind supported by a central bank for domestic banks.
The same year, UAE Exchange joined RippleNet for cross-border payments. This partnership illustrates Ripple's expansion into the Middle East among money transfer and exchange providers, even if it is not a government agreement by itself.
2019-2021: MoneyGram, the Contract That Put XRP at the Center
The MoneyGram file is one of the best-documented cases in Ripple's commercial history. In June 2019, the two companies announced a two-year strategic partnership. Ripple was to become a key partner for MoneyGram in cross-border payments and foreign exchange settlement using digital assets. Ripple committed to providing up to $50 million in capital in exchange for shares.
The setup used xRapid, later renamed On-Demand Liquidity, and XRP as an intermediate asset between currencies. MoneyGram had indeed used this infrastructure on certain corridors, and Ripple would later indicate that several billion dollars had been processed via RippleNet and ODL during the relationship.
The partnership was not permanent, however. In March 2021, Ripple and MoneyGram announced that they were ending their agreement. This is a useful reminder: a historic institutional signature can be real and important without guaranteeing an indefinite commercial relationship.
2020: Siam Commercial Bank Goes to the Client Service
In Thailand, Siam Commercial Bank developed with Ripple an international transfer service within the SCB EASY app. After its release from the Bank of Thailand's regulatory sandbox, SCB announced in 2020 a service for outgoing remittances to several countries using RippleNet.
This case is interesting because it shows the transition from a technology partnership to a bank product used by end customers. Ripple would later indicate that SCB had processed over half a million transactions on RippleNet in 2020.
2021: SBI Remit Activates On-Demand Liquidity in Japan
In July 2021, Ripple and SBI Remit announced the first production deployment of On-Demand Liquidity in Japan. SBI Remit was connected to Coins.ph and SBI VC Trade for payments between Japan and the Philippines. Here, XRP played an explicit role as an intermediate liquidity asset to reduce the need for pre-funding.
This step was different from many historical banking partnerships based on xCurrent: in the SBI Remit case, the use of XRP was at the heart of the announced product.
2021: The Bhutan Central Bank Launches a CBDC Pilot with Ripple
In September 2021, the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan announced with Ripple a central bank digital currency pilot. The project was intended to test progressively detailed, large, and cross-border use cases for a digital ngultrum.
This was a central bank pilot, not the announcement of a nationally deployed digital currency. The Royal Monetary Authority's 2021 annual report confirmed that the institution was exploring and piloting a Digital Ngultrum as part of its payment modernization.
2021-2023: Palau, from MoU to Services Contract and Pilot
The case of the Republic of Palau is particularly instructive because later government documents provided contract details rarely publicly available.
In October 2021, the Palau Ministry of Finance and Ripple Services concluded a Memorandum of Understanding to explore digital currencies and a US dollar-pegged stablecoin. In December 2022, the two parties concluded a Ripple Master Hosted Stablecoin Services Agreement to set up a controlled pilot.
The Palau Stablecoin was tested in 2023 on the XRP Ledger with public employees and local merchants. A public audit by Palau specified that the project aimed to study the integration of the stablecoin into the country's financial infrastructure, as well as its minting, distribution, redemption, and destruction.
This is one of the clearest examples of a relationship between Ripple and a government where not only a partnership announcement is available but also references to a MoU and a services contract.
2023: Montenegro Signs an Agreement for a CBDC Pilot
In April 2023, the Central Bank of Montenegro officially announced that it had signed an agreement with Ripple to develop a strategy and pilot program for a central bank digital currency or national stablecoin.
The central bank specified that the project would study concrete use cases, simulate the circulation of the currency in a controlled environment, and analyze issues of regulation, security, efficiency, and user protection. Activities continued with technical workshops and work involving the central bank, government, financial institutions, the private sector, and academia.
This was a formal institutional agreement documented by the central bank itself.
2023: Georgia Chooses Ripple After a Selection Process
The National Bank of Georgia launched in 2023 a selection process for its Digital Lari project. Nine technology providers were pre-selected. In November, the central bank announced that Ripple had been retained as the technology partner for the pilot after a process including an execution plan and technical demonstrations.
The project envisioned a limited-access pilot environment and use cases to evaluate the technology of a central bank digital currency. Later documents from the NBG indicated that the project continued with Ripple as the technology provider for concrete test scenarios.
Again, it is necessary to speak of a CBDC pilot and a technology partnership, not the adoption of XRP as a public Georgian currency.
What This Timeline Really Says About Ripple
Between 2016 and 2023, Ripple built several types of institutional relationships. Some banks led pilots or joined RippleNet; others launched commercial services. A few actors, like MoneyGram and SBI Remit, used liquidity products explicitly involving XRP. On the public side, central banks and governments signed agreements or selected Ripple for payment or digital currency pilots.
The underlying trend is real: Ripple has successfully entered projects with large banks, payment companies, central banks, and governments. However, the exact nature of each relationship varies greatly.
To say that 'all partner banks use XRP' would be false. To say that 'all partner governments have adopted the XRP public ledger' would also be false. Some projects relied on xCurrent, others on RippleNet, others on On-Demand Liquidity with XRP, and CBDC projects can use distinct Ripple platforms or, as in Palau, the XRP public ledger depending on the case.
Why This Distinction Is Important for XRP
Ripple's institutional history gives the company a rare experience with cross-border payments, compliance, liquidity, and projects with central banks. This experience can contribute to the XRP and XRPL ecosystem, but it does not create a mechanical relationship between each Ripple contract and XRP demand.
To measure the real impact on XRP, it is necessary to look at each contract individually: the product used, the corridor, the settlement method, the source of liquidity, and the presence or absence of XRP in the flow. This detailed reading – rather than a simple list of logos – allows for an understanding of the real scope of Ripple's institutional adoption.