Ripple pledges 1,000,000,000 XRP grant to native developers

TL;DR Breakdown:

• Ripple is planning to distribute one billion XRP ($789M) to developers.
• The goal is to encourage developers to continually build projects on the XRP Ledger.
• One of the company’s top officials is leaving.

The popular blockchain payment company Ripple is committing to growing the XRP ecosystem. According to recent report from The Information, the company has pledged to give away 1,000,000,000 XRP tokens to developers to support them in creating more projects on the payments-oriented XRP ledger. 

At present, the market value of the tokens sits around $789 million. Ripple intends to completely distribute the funds to developers within the next 10 to 20 years, according to the report. Noteworthily, the San Francisco-based blockchain company has made similar efforts previously to expand the XRP community and ecosystem. 

Back in 2019, an offshoot from Ripple called Xpring announced a 1,000,000,000 XRP grant to web monetization platform Coil for building an ecosystem of creators, developers, companies, and nonprofits that will harness XRP. More recently, Ripple also granted developers $2 million in October 2021 to about 25 developers building on the XRP Ledger. 

Top Ripple developer leaves

The latest developers’ grant announcement comes as the company’s director of developer relations, Matt Hamilton, officially announced his departure. 

Prior to joining Ripple in January 2021, Hamilton had worked with major technology companies like IBM and HP. He represented Ripple at various conferences and also assisted the company in creating several grants programs. According to Hamilton, 2021 was a “tough year” because of his wife’s health issue; hence, the reason for his departure from the blockchain company.

XRP market update

XRP was once the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, but currently ranked the sixth-largest with a market valuation of $38 billion. XRP has faced several headwinds in the past months following the ongoing legal tussle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other market factors. 

At the time of writing, XRP trades at $0.789 on Coinmarketcap. It has lost more than 79% since reaching an all-time high of $3.84 in January 2018.