21Shares, which oversees roughly $11 billion in assets worldwide, has weighed in on some of the most persistent claims about Ripple-promoted XRP. Among the points addressed is the assumption that Ripple has direct control over the XRP Ledger (XRPL).
The Truth About Ripple and Control of the XRP Ledger
21Shares recently described XRP as “crypto’s most misunderstood 13-year-old,” highlighting how much misconception still surrounds the crypto asset and its broader ecosystem.
One of the most persistent misconceptions about XRP is that Ripple controls both the token and the blockchain behind it. According to major asset manager 21Shares, that assumption is fundamentally wrong.
The asset manager emphasizes that Ripple is a private technology company, while the XRP Ledger is an open, decentralized public blockchain. XRP, meanwhile, is the network’s native digital asset.
The firm also points to the XRPL’s validator structure as evidence of its decentralized design. Ripple operates just one of the 35 validators included on the XRPL’s default Unique Node List (UNL), according to 21Shares.
 
Beyond that default list, the broader XRPL network includes more than 150 known validators, spanning universities, cryptocurrency exchanges, businesses, and independent individuals.
21Shares captures the distinction with a powerful analogy: building the road does not mean controlling the traffic that moves across it.
21Shares also highlighted another common source of confusion: XRP, the XRP Ledger, and Ripple are three distinct things— not interchangeable names for the same entity.
Put simply, the XRPL is the blockchain, XRP is the native asset that runs on it, and Ripple is a separate private company that builds financial infrastructure and payment solutions leveraging the network.
That distinction matters because Ripple’s involvement in the XRP ecosystem does not mean the company owns or controls the XRP Ledger itself.
XRP’s Supply Is Capped at 100 Billion
21Shares further drew attention to what makes XRP’s supply model different from many other cryptocurrencies.
Unlike assets that continuously add new coins through mining or inflationary issuance, XRP’s entire 100 billion token supply was created at the launch of the XRP Ledger. The network therefore has no mechanism for minting additional XRP beyond that original maximum.
Instead, the amount of XRP in circulation can gradually shrink over time. That’s because a tiny amount of XRP is permanently destroyed every time a transaction is processed on the XRPL.
The burn mechanism wasn’t primarily designed to create scarcity. Its key purpose is to make network spam and transaction flooding economically impractical by attaching a small, irreversible cost to every transaction.
But there is a secondary effect: every transaction permanently removes a small amount of XRP from the total supply, meaning the supply can only move downward — not upward.
Can XRP Hit $2.69 This Year?
At the start of 2026, 21Shares mapped out three potential paths for XRP: $2.45 in its base case, $2.69 in a bullish scenario, and $1.60 if bears take control. With XRP presently trading around $1.44, the bullish target would represent a significant upside from current levels.
21Shares isn’t just commenting on XRP from the sidelines — the asset manager already offers multiple XRP investment products.
Its European 21Shares XRP ETP (AXRP) has been available since April 2019 and trades across major European exchanges, including SIX Swiss Exchange, Deutsche Börse Xetra, Euronext Amsterdam, and Euronext Paris.
The firm later expanded its XRP footprint into the U.S. market with the 21Shares XRP ETF (TOXR), which launched in December 2025.
With billions of dollars in crypto products and direct XRP offerings, 21Shares’ bullish outlook on the payments-focused token carries added significance.
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