Actor and noted tech investor Ashton Kutcher surprised Ellen DeGeneres on Wednesday with a large donation to the talk show host's wildlife charity on behalf of cryptocurrency startup Ripple.
The twist? The $4 million that Kutcher and his business partner, Guy Oseary, presented to The Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund comes in the form of Ripple's XRP coin — currently third most-valuable cryptocurrency on the market, behind Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Kutcher surprised DeGeneres with the donation, on behalf of Ripple, live on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" on NBC.
"You're always thinking about everyone else," Kutcher told DeGeneres. "We wanted to show you that people are thinking about you."
Kutcher joked that, typically, such a large donation might be accompanied by a "big, giant check," but the actor instead had DeGeneres push a button on his phone that transferred millions of dollars worth of the cryptocurrency to the charity instantly.
Kutcher and Oseary (a friend of DeGeneres' who is a talent manager for acts like Madonna and U2) are invested in Ripple through their tech investment fund, Sound Ventures. The fund has also invested in tech startups such as cloud-based business software company Zenefits, while Kutcher himself was also an early backer of major startups like Airbnb and Uber.
Here's what you need to know about Ripple and XRP.
"Ripple is basically a platform to allow people to transfer money from bank account to bank account, person to person, really securely, really simply, really quickly," said Kutcher, a noted fan of the blockchain technology that supports cryptocurrency, while describing what Ripple does on DeGeneres' show.
First released in 2012, San Francisco-based Ripple's XRP is a digital currency that users on the company's network use to perform global transactions. Ripple bills itself as a platform where banks and other global financial institutions can make fast and secure financial payments using XRP.
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Ripple's XRP coin is currently worth just over $23.3 billion on paper, compared to Bitcoin's valuation of $128 billion. Of course, like other cryptocurrencies, XRP has proven to be extremely volatile, having lost more than 80 percent of its value since hitting a high price of $3.84 per digital token in January 2018. Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen saw his personal XRP holdings lose more than $40 billion in value at one point in January, when cryptocurrency valuations fell off a cliff.
Ripple's XRP ended Wednesday trading at roughly 65 cents, according to Coinmarketcap.com.
On Ripple's platform, financial institutions serve as "gateways" or intermediaries that users access in order to transfer money from one person or entity to another faster and at a lower cost than most traditional forms of money transfer.
Unlike Bitcoin, Ripple's XRP tokens do not need to be mined. And Ripple's platform is also popular for the speed of its transactions, with Ripple being able to perform 1,500 transactions per second, compared to three per second for Bitcoin. XRP transactions go through in about four seconds, on average, versus more than an hour for Bitcoin, and several days for most traditional financial institutions.
The drawbacks for Ripple and XRP for some people include the criticism that the digital currency is not full decentralized, because Ripple controls the bulk of it. There have also been some concerns raised about how secure the network is against cyberattacks, while Ripple was also sued in early May for allegedly selling unregistered securities to investors.
Still, Ripple has found fans among some high-profile financial institutions, forming partnerships with the likes of American Express, money transfer company MoneyGram, as well as global banks such as Swiss-based UBS and Spain's Banco Santander, to provide their customers with blockchain-based digital payments.
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Disclosure: NBC and CNBC are owned by Comcast's NBCUniversal unit.
FAQs
XRP was previously endorsed by several celebrities, including Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary who donated $4 million worth of XRP to the Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund in 2018. That same year, Ripple also partnered with Madonna to raise funds for orphans in Malawi.
Is Ashton Kutcher involved with Ripple? ›
Kutcher has also been increasingly interested in the cryptocurrency market. He has made investments in startups including Ripple as well as bitcoin payment service provider BitPay. He's been a supporter of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology for quite some time.
How much XRP does Ripple own? ›
As of October 26, 2023, Ripple owns approximately 6.3% of the total XRP supply (47.7 billion out of 100 billion XRP). Here's a breakdown: 47.7 billion XRP: Held by Ripple Labs for various purposes such as ecosystem development, partnerships, and future sales.
Does Ashton Kutcher own Bitcoin? ›
Hollywood actress Mila Kunis has revealed she had advised her husband and fellow movie star Ashton Kutcher against investing in bitcoin (BTC), but fortunately, he did not follow her advice.
Is XRP a good investment? ›
Even at a price of less than $1, XRP could be a riskier investment than you might think. Currently trading at a super-low price of just $0.65, crypto token XRP (XRP -4.28%) might appear to be wildly undervalued.
Does XRP reach $100? ›
Could XRP reach £100? Reaching a £100 price point would mean a market capitalisation of roughly £5.2 trillion for XRP, considering the current circulating supply of about 52 billion. This would be more than four times larger than the current value of all cryptocurrencies combined.
Will Ripple use XRP? ›
The Ripple network not only processes transactions using XRP. But it can also be used for other fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies.
Who owns most of Ripple? ›
The addresses holding the most XRP coins generally belong to the project founders and executives, including Chris Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse, and centralized exchanges such as Binance, Kraken, Uphold, Bitbank, and others.
What crypto does Ripple use? ›
The company's business resolves around XRP -0.61% , the native cryptocurrency of the XRP Ledger. Ripple uses XRP as a bridge currency to facilitate the transfer of value between different fiat currencies for its customers. Anyone can also make transactions of XRP across its network.
Can Ripple make you a millionaire? ›
According to bitinfocharts.com, Ripple handled nearly 700,000 transactions in the last 24 hours. It's obvious to me that in order for Ripple to make millionaires out of its investors, adoption would need to rise substantially over the long term. As demand increases for the digital coin, its price should as well.
Ripple (XRP) is a popular choice among banks worldwide. The network's fast transaction speeds, low gas fees, and energy-efficient consensus make it an ideal cryptocurrency for traditional financial institutions. Fortunately, this is exactly the clientele that Ripple Labs has in mind.
Should I buy Bitcoin or XRP? ›
Bitcoin is considered to be more decentralized than XRP, but XRP is cheaper, faster, more scalable, and environmentally friendlier. Bitcoin is primarily used as a store of value and medium of exchange, while XRP was designed for cross-border payments.
Is Ashton Kutcher a billionaire? ›
Ashton Kutcher has a net worth of somewhere around USD 200 million to USD 250 million.
Who actually owns the most Bitcoin? ›
Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, is believed to own the most bitcoins, with estimates suggesting over 1 million BTC mined in the early days of the network.
Who is the richest Bitcoin owner in the world? ›
For the third year running, Changpeng Zhao, founder and former CEO of crypto exchange Binance, is crypto's wealthiest person.
Who are the biggest investors in XRP? ›
The 10 top addresses on the XRP rich list
| Owner | Number of XRP | % of Circ. Supply |
|---|
| Ripple #1 | 1,960,027,012 | 3.57% |
| Ripple #2 | 1,541,294,079 | 2.81% |
| Binance #1 | 1,477,168,712 | 2.69% |
| Uphold #1 | 1,372,766,273 | 2.50% |
6 more rowsMar 27, 2024
Leading centralized crypto exchanges that support XRP trading include Binance, Coinbase, Kraken and Bybit.
How much XRP does Brad own? ›
The current Ripple CEO is Brad Garlinghouse, who owns a reported 6.3% stake in the company, as well as additional XRP tokens.
