Have you ever wondered why the Ripple logo and XRP logo are so different? While one represents an ambitious fintech and blockchain company, the other is one of the market’s largest and most prominent cryptocurrencies.
People often forget that Ripple Labs and XRP are different entities and shouldn’t be used interchangeably. As such, the use of their respective logos requires a deft hand.
What’s the difference between Ripple Labs and XRP, and what’s the hidden meaning and inspiration behind their iconic logos?
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Ripple Labs ≠ XRP
It may shock many crypto enthusiasts, but technically speaking, Ripple Labs and XRP are not the same. The two are tightly intertwined and work towards creating an innovative cross-border payments system that streamlines international transactions. However, that doesn’t mean we can paint them with the same brush.
Sponsored
Ripple Labs is a private American company developing the Ripple payments protocol. Aiming to make cross-border payments faster and more affordable for financial institutions, Ripple Labs is bringing blockchain technology to traditional finance.
XRP, on the other hand, is the cryptocurrency at the heart of Ripple Lab’s flagship product, the XRP Ledger. Originally designed by Jed McCaleb and David Schwartz, the XRP Ledger is the underlying technology that powers these efficient and secure international payments.
Sponsored
Ultimately, Ripple Labs is the business responsible for developing and maintaining the XRP Ledger. XRP is the native digital asset of the protocol that promises to reinvent the financial industry.
Are the Ripple Logo and the XRP Logo the Same?
Think of other popular coins, like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL). Each of these crypto assets shares almost identical logos with the foundations and development teams that built them.
Surprisingly, Ripple and XRP have broken the established trend of cryptocurrency projects and teams sharing logos. Going against the grain, the Ripple and XRP logos are so different that you’d be unlikely to believe the two entities were linked.
What do the Ripple Labs and XRP logos represent?
The Ripple Logo
Resembling both a festive clover and a mythically trendy fidget spinner, the Ripple logo is simplistic and easily recognizable.
What many Ripple supporters don’t recognize, however, is that the logo is inspired by a spiritual symbol that dates back to the Stone Age.
What Inspired the Ripple Logo?
The Ripple Labs logo closely resembles the Triskelion, a popular symbol best known for its frequent appearances in Celtic semiotics. Despite its powerful association with Celtic imagery, the Triskelion is historically found throughout Europe and the Mediterranean.
Derived from the Greek words ‘Tri,’ meaning three, and ‘Skelos,’ meaning leg, the Triskelion is said to represent movement, progress, and the ability to overcome obstacles and continue along one’s path.
This symbolism seems well-aligned given Ripple’s complicated history with crypto market volatility and its topsy-turvy legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Other historical meanings imply that the Triskelion represents centeredness and is often considered a symbol of family.
According to a now-deleted post on the Ripple website, the official logo was selected to represent “the connected and distributed nature of our solutions.”
The XRP Logo
While the Ripple logo is rooted in ancient history, the XRP logo itself blazes with modernity and futuristic styling. With clean, smooth edges and sharp branding, the XRP logo represents the cryptocurrency ticker, XRP.
What Inspired the XRP Logo?
Despite looking like a simple twist of modern branding, the XRP logo is based on a mathematical principle and tied together with financial connotations.
First, the ‘X’ in XRP represents the multiplication operator you probably learned about in primary school. Ripple’s now-deleted explanation post claims that the decision represents how blockchain technology and the XRP Ledger’s consensus protocol “are building on one another to create something bigger.”
On top of that, the X is also thought to represent the two sides of a financial transaction, sending and receiving.
On the Flipside
- Like the market in which they reside, crypto asset logos are volatile in their own ways. Cryptocurrency logos are known to change and rebrand themselves often to stay relevant.
Why This Matters
Ripple Labs and the XRP digital currency are some of the most important figures in the crypto space. Knowing how to recognize these entities and what makes them different will help you better understand developments and events in the crypto industry.
FAQs
Ripple Labs, the company behind XRP and the Ripple payments protocol, is based in San Francisco, USA.
You can buy Ripple XRP on popular cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance and Coinbase.
The ticker symbol for Ripple’s cryptocurrency, XRP, is appropriately named “XRP”.
