Ripple and its founders and cryptocurrency exchanges occupy top entries on the $XRPrich list in 2024. Out of the total circulating supply of $XRP, 20.38% of all coins are controlled by the top 10 addresses. Addresses between the 10th and 50th spot on the list control 28.71%, while the remaining addresses hold 50.91% of the $XRPcirculating supply.

$XRPis one of the largest digital assets in terms of total dollar value. With a market cap of over $28 billion, the native cryptocurrency for the Ripple Network is owned by millions of investors worldwide.

Despite the decline in its price over the years due to the SEC lawsuit, many are still bullish on the coin. Out of the fixed supply of 100 billion coins, 54.51 billion are currently in circulation.

In this article, we discuss those who currently make up the $XRPrich list, i.e., those holding the most $XRPcoins.

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Key highlights:

• The $XRPrich list is dominated by Ripple founders, exchanges like Binance, Kraken, and Uphold, holding significant portions of $XRP.
• Ripple's own addresses contain the highest amounts of $XRP, with one address holding nearly 2 billion coins.
• Compared to other cryptocurrencies, $XRPshows a more centralized distribution, with the top 10 addresses controlling over 20% of its supply.
• $XRP's market cap exceeds $28 billion, making it a major player among digital assets, despite price declines due to legal challenges.

Who is on the $XRPRich List?

The addresses holding the most $XRPcoins generally belong to the project founders and executives, including Chris Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse, and centralized exchanges such as Binance, Kraken, Uphold, Bitbank, and others. These centralized exchanges and crypto lenders centralized exchanges and crypto lenders are the top $XRPholders by percentage, holding $XRPcoins worth hundreds of millions in several addresses on behalf of their customers. Ripple and its founders also own a significant amount of $XRP.

Most exchanges' $XRPholdings are usually customers' deposits kept in reserves. This explains why Binance has one of the largest supplies of $XRPcoins. The top 10 addresses on the BNB Chain hold 168 million $XRP, more than 60% of the overall $XRPsupply of the coin's BEP20 variety.

Top $XRPHolders by Percentage

Distribution of $XRP’s circulating supply on the mainnet.

The top 10 addresses with the largest $XRPsupplies hold roughly 11 billion $XRP, worth approximately $5.72 billion at current market rates. If we take into account the top 50 $XRPaddresses instead, they control 15.6 billion $XRPor 28.7% of the entire circulating supply.

If you want to check the top addresses that are $XRPwhales yourself, we’ve prepared a list of the ten largest $XRPaddresses, with direct links to $XRPScan:

*Data collected on Feb 12, 2024

As we can see from the table above, one of Ripple's own addresses has the single highest amount of $XRPin a single wallet, with nearly 2 billion $XRPcoins in one address. The second largest address also belongs to Ripple. For easier visualization of the distribution of the circulating supply, and how much $XRPis in the hands of the top 10 whales, take a look at the $XRPrich list graph for 2024.

The top 10 largest addresses control roughly 11 billion $XRP.

Ripple founders and their $XRPholdings

At the time of founding the project, the founders Chris Larsen, Jed McCaleb, and Arthur Brito allocated 20 billion $XRPto themselves. Over the years, they have sold part of their holdings. Jed left the company in 2014, taking 9 billion $XRPcoins. He has been selling since then and recently sold off all his holdings. It took him eight years to finish selling off his $XRPholdings.

However, the other co-founders are still holding most of their $XRP. This is partly because of the SEC case against the company and its founders, in which the regulator considers $XRPto be a security. Until the case is resolved in favor of Ripple, there is a risk that selling $XRPcould amount to selling unregistered securities in the US. This is why the cryptocurrency exchanges registered in the US have also delisted the coin.

According to Forbes, the co-founder and former CEO Chris Larsen is one of the largest holders with over 5 billion $XRP. At least five addresses, containing 2.5 billion $XRPin total, are directly traceable to him. The current CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, is also one of the largest holders, although there are no specifics on how many $XRPcoins he holds.

How $XRPcompares to $BTC, $ETH, and other popular cryptos?

*Data collected on Feb 12, 2024

$XRPhas a fixed supply of 100 billion and is designed to be deflationary. So far, over 54 billion coins have been issued, with retail investors controlling most of the supply. This is evident in how most of the supply is now on exchanges. There are 28 addresses with at least 500 million $XRP, and all these addresses hold more than 20.3 billion of all $XRPin circulation. This represents 37.3% of the circulating supply.

Bitcoin Whales

For Bitcoin, only four addresses have over 100,000 $BTC, and these addresses control more than 670,000 $BTC. One hundred and eight addresses have between 10,000 and 100,000 $BTC, a total of almost 2.3 million $BTC, while 1,964 addresses have between 1,000 and 10,000 $BTC, a total of 4.6 million $BTC. Overall, these addresses control about 7.7 million of $BTCsupply. That is over 40% of the circulating supply.

Ethereum Whales

Over 244 million Ethereum addresses are holding the 120.4 million Ether in circulation, according to Etherscan. 16.6% of that supply is locked in the Ethereum staking contract, while 3%, which is 3.7 million, is the Wrapped Ether contract. Several exchanges, such as Binance, Gemini, Kraken, OKX, Bitfinex, Crypto.com, Compound, and others, also hold a significant portion of $ETHsupply.

Layer 2 networks such as Abitrum and Polygon also hold significant $ETHon their bridge contracts. Overall, 113 addresses hold at least 100,000 $ETH, mostly institutional addresses. The top 100 addresses on Ethereum hold about 41.5% of the supply. There are over 1200 addresses that hold at least 10,000 $ETH, and these wallets account for more than 70% of the total supply.

Dogecoin Whales

Dogecoin has a total supply of 139 billion, and 100 addresses have over 100 million $DOGE. These addresses hold over 92 billion $DOGE, 66% of the circulating supply, according to Dogecoin Explorer. However, most addresses with this large holding belong to exchanges such as Robinhood, Binance, Kraken, Crypto.com, etc. Individuals also own some, although their identity is unknown.

Solana $SOLWhales

Meanwhile, the top 100 $SOLholders have 33.29% of the overall supply of 539.3 million, with the 100th address holding 604,707 $SOL. Per Coincarp, the top ten wallets hold 10.78% of the assets, with the number one wallet holding 16.87 million coins.

Cardano $ADAWhales

Unlike most other coins, $ADAwhales don't control a sizable portion of the circulating supply. The coin has a circulating supply of 35.7 billion, and the top 10 holders only control 6.41%, according to Cardano Explorer data. The top 100 wallets with the most $ADAhold 18.97% of the circulating supply, which leads to a much less top-heavy rich list than $XRP.

Final Thoughts

$XRPwhales mostly comprise exchanges and crypto firms with billions of $XRPin multiple addresses for their client. The top 20 addresses alone control 32% of the circulating supply. But most of these belong to exchanges, meaning they are for retail investors. Overall, $XRPis significantly less centralized in terms of its distribution than some of its crypto counterparts, particularly Ethereum and Dogecoin.

If you want to explore how the distribution of other cryptocurrencies impacts their overall tokenomics structure, check the articles below:

• Bitcoin Rich List: Biggest Bitcoin Holders
• Top 10 Dogecoin Holders
• Top 10 Shiba Inu Holders
• Top 10 HEX Holders