- Ripple’s first version, RipplePay, launched in 2004
- XRP came in 2012, but the idea predates Bitcoin’s whitepaper
- XRP’s history supports its long-term relevance in crypto
A resurfaced 2014 email thread shared by the XRP community has stirred up the crypto space — suggesting that Ripple’s concept was born way back in 2004, four years before Bitcoin even existed.
The original idea came from Ryan Fugger, who built RipplePay as a peer-to-peer system to move value without banks. It wasn’t a cryptocurrency yet — just a decentralized vision before blockchain was mainstream.
Years later, Chris Larsen helped rebrand and evolve it into the Ripple we know today, launching XRP in 2012. So while Bitcoin remains the first actual cryptocurrency, Ripple’s roots clearly came earlier, and that changes how we look at XRP.
It’s not a copycat. It’s a parallel vision that predates the crypto boom.
For anyone following XRP price prediction trends, this adds weight to Ripple’s long-term legitimacy. XRP isn’t just another token — it’s part of a deeper origin story.
