A couple of days ago, I talked to the brothers about not maintaining prejudice just because $XRP is big. Today, we are digging deeper into the past and present of XRP, and then we step into its world!

It issued its coin in 2013 and has never missed any round of bull market rhythm. In 2017, the price was 0.0005 USD, peaking at 3 USD, which calculates to a 6000 times increase—sounds as legendary as BTC and ETH, but the truth isn't that romantic.

XRP's business focuses on cross-border payments and settlements, collaborating with over 300 banks. However, limited by regulations and implementation issues, the actual revenue from this business can almost be ignored. Its ability to reach today's scale relies more on a highly controlled chip structure, coupled with the switching cycle of bull and bear markets to make arbitrage.

In terms of chips, the total is 100 billion, with 63.3 billion circulating, while another 36.6 billion is locked in Ripple's official custody, unlocking 1 billion each month. Among the top 20 addresses by market capitalization, Ripple's custody addresses occupy the top 9 directly, each starting from 5 billion. After deducting the volume held by exchanges, the chips in retail investors' hands are pitifully small—on the surface, Ripple holds 41%, but the actual control might be even higher.

There are more fans abroad than domestically, which is somewhat similar to TRX. It is also one of the earliest coins that mimicked BTC, but took the 'company coin' route—designing a highly controlled chip structure from the very beginning. With brand effects and manipulation techniques, it can easily reach a high point in every bull market, attracting retail investors' attention.

So I think XRP is a standard '庄币' model. It's not derogatory; as long as the operator doesn't abandon the market, with its resources and operational capabilities, there is still a chance to share in the big cake of cross-border payments.