XRP Classic: What It Is, Why It Matters, and What You Need to Know
When people talk about XRP Classic, a fork of the original XRP ledger that preserves the pre-Ripple Labs protocol changes. Also known as XRP Ledger Classic, it represents a version of the network that never adopted the centralized upgrades pushed by Ripple Labs. Unlike the official XRP token, XRP Classic is maintained by a decentralized group of developers and users who believe in the original codebase without corporate influence. This isn’t just a technical footnote—it’s a philosophical split in the crypto world. While Ripple pushed for institutional adoption, regulatory compliance, and controlled supply, XRP Classic stayed true to the open, permissionless vision many early adopters fell in love with.
Related to XRP Classic are other forks and community-driven chains like XRP Ledger, the underlying blockchain technology originally developed by Ripple, and Ripple, the for-profit company that created and still heavily influences the official XRP token. These aren’t the same thing. XRP Classic runs on its own nodes, has its own transaction history, and doesn’t recognize Ripple’s later changes like the 2020 reserve requirement adjustments or the removal of certain validators. It’s a digital version of a protest vote—people who didn’t trust Ripple’s control over the network built their own path forward.
Why does this matter now? Because even in 2025, there are traders, developers, and privacy-focused users who still prefer XRP Classic. They don’t want their transactions monitored by Ripple’s validator list. They don’t want to rely on a single company’s roadmap. And they’re not alone—communities on Telegram, Discord, and decentralized forums still actively trade, develop wallets, and run nodes for XRP Classic. It’s not the biggest player, but it’s one of the most persistent. You’ll find it mentioned in posts about unregulated exchanges, crypto forks after legal battles, and projects that prioritize decentralization over corporate backing. Some of the exchanges listed in our posts, like MEXC and KuCoin, still support it—not because it’s trendy, but because its users demand it.
What you’ll find in this collection aren’t hype pieces or price predictions. These are real stories: how a small group kept XRP Classic alive after Ripple’s legal troubles, why some users switched from official XRP to avoid KYC traps, and what happened when a major exchange quietly delisted it. You’ll see how it compares to other forks like Bitcoin Cash, why it still has trading volume despite minimal media attention, and how its wallet ecosystem differs from Ripple’s official tools. This isn’t about chasing returns. It’s about understanding what happens when a community decides to walk away from the mainstream—and still keeps going.