Ripple CTO David Schwartz has damaged his silence on a long-standing query within the cryptocurrency group: Was Ripple named after the Grateful Lifeless’s iconic track?
In a current X dialog, a person requested the Ripple CTO if the title “Ripple” was impressed by the Grateful Lifeless’s 1970 hit track “Ripple.”
Schwartz responded, saying, “Considerably. I believe if we weren’t capable of get the area ripple.com, we doubtless would not have chosen the title ripple. We obtained the area as a result of an amazing man who was a Lifeless fan registered it due to the track and he appreciated the corporate.”
Considerably. I believe if we weren’t capable of get the area https://t.co/TrIRwHx1ub, we doubtless would not have chosen the title @ripple. We obtained the area as a result of an amazing man who was a Lifeless fan registered it due to the track and he appreciated the corporate.
— David ‘JoelKatz’ Schwartz (@JoelKatz) July 3, 2025
The Ripple CTO’s response means that, whereas the title “Ripple” was in a roundabout way impressed by the track, the provision of the ripple.com area — owned by a Grateful Lifeless fan who beloved the corporate — performed a key function within the naming determination.
Historic flashback
In 2011, David Schwartz, Jed McCaleb and Arthur Britto began constructing the XRP Ledger (XRPL). The three builders continued their efforts to create a distributed ledger that addressed Bitcoin’s core shortcomings, initially naming the code “Ripple.”
The XRP Ledger was then launched in June 2012. The trio was quickly joined by Chris Larsen, and in September 2012, they based NewCoin, which was later renamed OpenCoin.
In 2013, Opencoin was relaunched as Ripple Labs. Throughout the first talks with potential clients, the staff was requested concerning the distinctions between the Ripple undertaking and the OpenCoin firm. With the group referring to the digital asset as XRP, firm officers selected to rebrand the corporate as Ripple Labs, which has since been shortened to “Ripple.”
Ripple is making use of for a nationwide financial institution constitution in the US, in a current main milestone, following an analogous transfer by stablecoin large Circle.

