22 Jan, 2026
2 minutes
XRP has remained one of the most held cryptocurrencies around the globe, amassing a strong community, partnerships with institutions, and being listed in the top digital assets by market capitalization for a long period of time. While interest in XRP has been growing all along, especially given recent regulatory developments and global adoption milestones-a number of investors have come up with questions about how many people own XRP, how holdings are distributed, and what the latest XRP Rich List shows about ownership concentration.
With on-chain data, while exact ownership numbers cannot be measured with complete certainty, it gives a clear picture of how XRP wealth is distributed and how the global holder base has changed going into 2026, as wallets cannot be equated to individuals.
Before dissecting the XRP rich list in detail, it is important to note that the definition of ownership has to be understood first. Like other digital currencies across the globe, XRP uses a system based on wallet addresses rather than user accounts. A user can have multiple wallets, while a wallet can belong to thousands of people across different exchanges.
For that reason, ownership estimates are based on three measures:
The distribution of on-chain wallets - how many people own XRP in the world and how many is distributed across addresses
Exchange custodies: large wallet balances can be the sum of balances of many people
Ecosystem participation data - wallets interacting with staking, transfers, payments, etc.
These sources, when viewed collectively, provide a realistic view of the widespread nature of XRP ownership and the locations of large stores of wealth.
Currently, as of 2026, XRP remains to be among the most distributed cryptocurrencies in the world with millions of its addresses holding some amount of XRP. This range of XRP holders includes retail investors, long-term supporters, as well as institutions exploring payment use cases.
Determining the total number of XRP holders remains impossible considering that blockchains do not contain information that could allow one to track individuals from a given digital wallet address. However, estimating the number ranges of ownership remains possible with a reasonable level of accuracy.
According to on-chain analytics as of 2026, there are millions of XRP addresses with a non-zero XRP balance. The number of XRP owners across the globe is also lower than the number of addresses due to exchanges as users of exchanges keep XRP in their accounts, and each account might have tens of thousands of customers.
Total XRP supply: 100 billion XRP
It appears that while corporations carry the torch, there have been a few individuals who at some point in recent history held large sums of XRP tokens. In these cases, the accusations are being publically tagged and reported.
Chris Larsen Chris Larsen, a co-founder and early individual behind the XRP ecosystem is often referred to as the largest individual founder. Tags in XRPSCAN and reports from Cointelegraph, Coincodex (Nov 2025) have highlighted several addresses where Larse’s holdings are stashed. Together all of these said listed wallets hold a massive amount of XRP.
Allocations have typically gone to senior executives and early employees. Typically, these wallets are smaller than Ripple’s corporate holdings and Chris Larsen’s combined holdings but still comprise a material amount.
Another early developer, Jed McCaleb, held a significant portion of the XRP. Point is: with time a structured sale agreement and distribution plan diminished the on‑ledger concentration of his holdings.
McCaleb’s sales were executed according to legal arrangements and topsy-turvy PHP transfers set up to avoid disrupting the market.
There are a number of things that make it difficult to measure
One individual may possess 10 wallets.
A single exchange wallet could account for 10,000 individuals.
Many transactions on XRP are done inside its custodial environments, away from the blockchain
Some of these addresses can sit idle for years, forming "dormant addresses.
Therefore, instead of providing specific data on what the exact numbers are on specific individuals, the focus is on trends related to addresses.
Despite such flaws, we may conclude that XRP remains as widely distributed as any asset globally, even compared to leading cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as prominent stablecoins.
The XRP Rich List helps to create an understanding of how many people own XRP in different addresses. Though it does not disclose the entities controlling the different addresses, it is obvious how the XRP wealth is concentrated in different volume bands.
| # | Account | Balance | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | rB3WNZc45gxzW31zxfXdkx8HusAhoqscPn | Ripple (11) | 234XRP | 5,000,000,000XRP | |
| 2 | r9UUEXn3cx2seufBkDa8F86usfjWM6HiYp | Ripple (10) | 220XRP | 5,000,000,000XRP | |
| 3 | rDdXiA3M4mYTQ4cFpWkVXfc2UaAXCFWeCK | Ripple (12) | 216XRP | 5,000,000,000XRP | |
| 4 | rKDvgGUsNPZxsgmoemfrgXPS2Not4co2op | Ripple (13) | 201XRP | 5,000,000,000XRP | |
| 5 | rMhkqz3DeU7GUUJKGZofusbrTwZe6bDyb1 | Ripple (28) | 500,000,206XRP | 4,000,000,000XRP | |
| 6 | r9NpyVfLfUG8hatuCCHKzosyDtKnBdsEN3 | Ripple (9) | 500,000,204XRP | 4,000,000,000XRP | |
| 7 | rN8pqRwLYuuvY7pUHurybPC8P6rLqVsu6o | Ripple (15) | 200XRP | 3,100,000,000XRP | |
| 8 | rKwJaGmB5Hz24Qs2iyCaTdUuL1WsEXUWy5 | Ripple (14) | 201XRP | 3,000,000,000XRP | |
| 9 | rPyCQm8E5j78PDbrfKF24fRC7qUAk1kDMZ | Bithumb (12) | 1,842,828,402XRP | ||
| 10 | rs8ZPbYqgecRcDzQpJYAMhSxSi5htsjnza | Binance (5) | 1,705,412,412XRP |
A number of observations have emerged across 2026 data:
1. A small number of very large wallets have a lot of their funds in the form of XRP. The large wallets often comprise exchange custody accounts, institutional custody services, initial ecosystem members, and long-term holders who have been holding their XRP for a long time.
2. Using the term 'Medium-Sized Wallets,' the group of retail investors, traders, and individuals holding the asset for payment purposes can be specified. This group of users comprises the broad contingent of the worldwide base of holders of the asset.
3. The vast majority of the addresses have a small balance. This is a reflection of the ubiquitous nature of the XRP and the millions of holders that have a limited balance as a result of trading, sending money, and experimenting with cryptocurrency.
4. The large exchanges in the ranking have a major impact because they consolidate user funds into a single account. The implication here is that such large amounts are not held by a single individual but are in fact held in accounts for thousands of users.
Many curious investors out there might wonder how many people own 1000 XRP, as this figure is considered the psychological threshold for the middle tier of holders. As previously stated, on-chain information cannot reveal the holder of each wallet, yet patterns on account distribution within the rich lists do allow one to place the "1,000 XRP tier" within the global ecosystem.
For many cryptocurrency communities, holding a round figure-such as 1,000 units-represents a transition from casual ownership to more intentional accumulation. One thousand coins could be viewed in the XRP ecosystem as being:
a mid-range holding,
achievable for most retail investors.
large enough to reflect interest but not necessarily long-term conviction.
that become significant when aggregated across millions of global holders.
This range helps analysts understand middle-class participation in the XRP network.
On-chain address distribution reveals that a good chunk of wallets fall in the range of hundreds to thousands of XRP. That means small and medium holders are pretty widespread, rather than extreme concentration among whales.
Several realities shape this segment:
A big portion of retail holders keep their XRP on centralized exchanges. Their balance is aggregated under a few big custodial wallets. Thus, it could well be the case that thousands of owners effectively have more than 1,000 XRP, but it's just not directly visible on-chain.
Long-term holders tend to build up over time, and the 1,000-XRP level is one place where casual holding starts to become more serious.
The global nature of the XRP community means mid-tier holdings appear across multiple regions, not just in North America or Europe.
Based on address categories and exchange custody patterns, it may be stated that a huge number of people worldwide have at least 1,000 XRP coins, putting them in the middle section of the curve, rather than whale or Small Holder investors.
This tier is often associated with:
long-term retail investors,
active traders building position sizes,
and users who follow the developments related to the ecosystem of XRP.
Although the actual worldwide figures can only be given anonymously, from every indicator, the ownership group of 1,000 XRP is recognized as comprising a significant segment of the entire community of XRPs.
Even though exact figures can't be ascertained, all indicators point to the fact that millions across the globe own XRP. This ranges from users who have adopted self-custody wallets, trading, and payments based on the overall XRP ecosystem, as it remains a very widely held coin in the global digital asset sphere.
On the one hand, according to on chain information, the number of XRP holders ranges from "hundreds to thousands." Following this, with each Binance account containing thousands of users, it may therefore be stated that a large number of people in the world have at least 1,000 XRP, which puts them in the mid-tier classification.
The XRP rich list is a balance-based distribution graph that indicates the size of the individual balances in the different wallets on the XRP Ledger system. It does not disclose information on the specific individuals holding the wallets.
Ripple has distributed ownership. Although some balances are held in larger accounts within the system, they comprise exchange accounts holding thousands of their individual balances. The balance in the millions of the individual accounts helps to emphasize the degree of dispersion of the holders of the virtual "currency."
No. It is possible for an individual to own multiple wallets, while an exchange wallet may represent thousands of individuals. Wallet figures provide useful information about trends and activities related to distribution as well as activity level. Ownership estimates cannot be based solely on wallet information and must include trends related to exchange and ecosystem activity.
