Buy Ripple USA (XRP Buying Guide)

Last Updated on July 14, 2023

Alright, so you want to buy some Ripple (aka XRP). First things first, a quick crash course on buying crypto in general.

Cryptocurrencies are bought through exchanges. Once you’ve signed up with one, you can log in, and use your preferred payment method to buy and trade cryptocurrencies like XRP on the crypto exchange.

Our favourite exchange is Coinbase, it’s easy to sign up and they have an incredible app which makes trading a breeze, but if you want to learn about other exchanges out there, check out our list of the best US crypto trading platforms.

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How To Buy Ripple in the USA

  1. Register for an account with Coinbase.
  2. Verify your identity/account.
  3. Choose a payment method.
  4. Click the “Trade” button.
  5. Enter the amount USD you want to trade for XRP, or how much XRP you want to buy.
  6. Review the details.
  7. Click “Buy Ripple”

Disclaimer: We may receive a commission for purchases made through the links on our site. However, this does not impact our reviews and comparisons. Learn more about our Affiliate Disclosure.

How To Get Started With Coinbase

1

Setup Your Account

As mentioned above, Coinbase is our go-to for trading cryptocurrencies in the USA, definitely if you're starting out. It's the most trustworthy exchange available and it makes trading buying and selling coins incredibly easy.

2

Verify Your Account

Before you do anything on Coinbase you'll have to verify your account. It has the fastest verification process we've tested so it won't take long.

Click on "Verify your account"

You'll have to verify your email, mobile number and identity to begin trading.

Coinbase verify account

You will then have to fill in all of your personal information including documents, don't be alarmed uploading this information, every exchange requires it. It's to ensure your safety and make everyone on the platform accountable.

3

Add a payment method

You'll first need to add a payment method so you can buy an sell cryptocurrency. You can also deposit Bitcoin straight into the platform if you already have some and would prefer trading with that.

Click on "Add payment method" or the Trade button in the top right which will take you there as well.

add payment method

4

Buy Coins

Once your account is verified and you've added a payment method, you can start buying and selling cryptocurrency.

Click on the blue Trade button in the top right

Then you can click on the coin name to see all the possible cryptocurrencies you can buy/sell.

coinbase buy coin list

Once you've decided what you want to buy you can indicate how much USD you want to buy.

Easy as that! You now have bought some cryptocurrency.

Ripple Price USD

Find the XRP USD price below:

Where To Buy Ripple

We highly suggest using Coinbase to buy and sell Cryptocurrency. We've done a comparison of the top 10 exchanges in the world for the US to use and Coinbase clearly deserves the top spot.

Coinbase Exchange

Coinbase is by far our most recommended exchange for the US. They have an easy to use platform and a great app that makes trading simple for new users. This is the most trusted exchange in the USA.

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What is Ripple?

The name Ripple is primarily used to talk about the cross-border payment system and network, that has its own payment protocol. Ripple is also the name of this network’s native digital coin, commonly abbreviated as XRP. These cryptocurrencies keep the network running and protect it from any spam activities.

As a developing payment network, Ripple’s vision is for value to be exchanged as quickly and easily as information, a concept known as the Internet of Value.

What Are Their Future Goals?

In the last century, we have seen waves of innovation in both transport and communication. Just think about how the airline industry has made the transportation of goods and passengers across the globe easier and ten times faster, providing services to almost every corner of the world. Then we had the World Wide Web that has made the world seem like an even smaller place, one where information goes viral within seconds.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that many companies have expanded their services into foreign markets. This has helped them grow their business exponentially, but on the flip side, the financial industry hasn’t been able to keep up with the phenomenon of market globalization. Companies are still dealing with an outdated international payment system.

The most common issue with these payments is that they require a number of intermediaries, i.e. other banks that would link the origin with the destination bank. These banks charge high commission fees and lengthen the time needed to complete the transaction. They control the whole process and are allowed to halt the transfer under suspicion. And let’s not forget the high exchange rates too.

The team at Ripple believes that it can leverage the blockchain technology to enable faster, cheaper, and more reliable cross-border payments for individual and institutional users. They think that this will bring rise to new industries, connect people worldwide, and provide financial inclusion for the high percentage of underbanked consumers.

Who Created Ripple?

Jed McCaleb is a well-known figure in the crypto world, a software engineer whose ideas lie behind the creation of some of the biggest crypto projects like eDonkey and Overnet. He was a co-founder of one of the first crypto exchange platforms called Mt. Gox. After a couple of years, he sold the platform to Mark Karpeles, who was in charge when the infamous hacking attack on Mt. Gox shook up the whole crypto industry.

In 2011, McCaleb and business executive and angel investor Chris Larsen approached Ryan Fugger, who in 2004 had created a payment system called OpenCoin. OpenCoin was something like a precursor to blockchain technology that was also based on mining as a means of verifying transactions. McCaleb proposed switching to a community consensus and designing a protocol for direct money transfers.

That’s how OpenCoin was transformed into Ripple in 2012. The team realized that it would be a good idea to launch a native currency as well, to provide the necessary liquidity, and that’s how XRP came to existence.

However, due to some misunderstandings, in 2014, McCaleb and another colleague, Joyce Kim, left Ripple and went on to found The Stellar Development Foundation, one of Ripple’s current rivals.

Right now, Ripple is the third cryptocurrency by trading volume, third only to Bitcoin and Ethereum as the two oldest and most popular digital coins. Its current value according to CoinMarketCap is $0.27, a price that the coin has kept more or less the same since 2017 when it experienced a major price increase, jumping from $0.01 to $0.30. This happened as a result of wider bank adoption and speculations surrounding the network.

Some of the acclaimed venture capital firms and investors that support Ripple are Accenture, CME Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Core Innovation Capital, Santander Group, Tetragon, Standard Chartered, Seagate Technology, and others.

Who Is It For?

Ripple is for people who are interested in the crypto market, as well as those who belong to larger corporations. It might not radically change the way you send and receive payments but it aims to revolutionize money circulation on a global scale.

Its native currency is by no means a substitute for Bitcoin or designed to be its competitor. Even though they use the same technology, they’re created for completely different purposes.

Ripple’s network, RippleNet, offers three main services: xRapid, xCurrent, and xVia. The first one allows banks to convert their funds into XRP and use them to make international transfers at just a fraction of the regular fees. XCurrent also offers cross-border bank payments but not in XRP, with an option to track their money until they’ve reached their destination. The last one, xVia, has an interface that combines the other two services and introduces some more advanced features.

Regardless of the currency in question, Ripple supports all units of value – fiat currencies, cryptocurrencies, and commodities.

Ripple’s Pros and Cons

Ripple’s open-source platform has been serving its customers for almost 8 years now and has proved to be secure and reliable. All XRP tokens have been pre-mined so there’s no risk of inflation.

The advantage of Ripple over Bitcoin is that it can handle an incredible amount of transactions per second. While Bitcoin can process only 15 transactions per second, the XRP ledger outperforms it with up to 1,500 transactions per second! They’ve managed to achieve the same production rate as VISA which is the largest payment processor ever.

What makes Ripple so trustworthy is the fact that it works shoulder to shoulder with financial regulators, banks, and governments. It’s supported by the following banks: Santander, Yes Bank, Union Credit, Axis Bank, Westpac, NBAD, UBS, and more.

However, this calls into question Ripple’s decentralization and transparency. For one thing, Ripple Lab used to hold over 80 billion XRP tokens, and they get to decide when to release more, but we can also argue that even if the company ceases to exist, there will still be XRP tokens around.

About The Author

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James Page

Crypto Technical Writer

James is the main editor at Crypto Head. With a passion for finance and anything blockchain, cryptocurrency is right up his alley.

He’s responsible for most of the content on the site, trying his best to keep everything up to date and as informative as possible. You can also find James on LinkedIn.

Disclaimer: Digital currencies and cryptocurrencies are volatile and can involve a lot of risk. Their prices and performance is very unpredictable and past performance is no guarantee of future performance. Consult a financial advisor or obtain your own advice independent of this site before relying and acting on the information provided.