[DigitalToday reporter Jinju Hong] David Schwartz, Ripple's honorary chief technology officer, said the background to the '100' T-shirt often treated as symbolic in the XRP community was a celebration of the XRP Ledger's processing speed milestone, not XRP's price.

On Oct. 31 local time, blockchain outlet U.Today reported that Schwartz explained the T-shirt he wore at the Swell event was made to mark XRPL reaching 100 transactions per second, or 100 TPS.

The controversy began with a question from X (formerly Twitter) user @unknowDLT. The user asked Schwartz to clearly explain the meaning of the words on the T-shirt in the image he posted. Schwartz replied, "This T-shirt was made to commemorate XRPL reaching 100TPS."

Schwartz also disclosed why the community took the shirt as a price signal. He said XRP was about $0.30 when he ordered the T-shirt and $1 when he actually received it. Because of that time gap, some in the community took the '100' to mean the moment XRP reached $1 rather than network performance.

Schwartz added of the mood at the time, "Everyone thought it was 100 for XRP, and we just left it that way." A single number came to symbolise both a technical achievement and a price memory.

The explanation also ties in with the XRP Ledger's early performance improvement trend. According to the outlet, in the early stage of performance testing in February 2015, XRPL stably processed 80 transactions per second. As improvements continued, throughput rose to about 120 to 490 transactions per second between March and June 2015.

In October that year, processing speed jumped to 525 transactions per second. That figure expanded again to about 1,100 TPS the following year. In July 2017, it was demonstrated that XRPL could sustain processing performance of 1,500 transactions per second, and it was reported that level has been maintained to this day.

Schwartz did not say exactly when the T-shirt was commissioned. Because XRP has traded around $0.30 at several points in the past, it is hard to pin down the shirt's production timing based on price alone. Even so, Schwartz's explanation has drawn attention for reframing the meaning of a long-circulated community symbol in a technical context.

The remarks also show how XRP-related symbols and narratives have been interpreted as overlapping with actual network milestones. At least according to Schwartz's explanation, the '100' that drew attention at the Swell event was not a phrase hinting at price expectations but a commemorative marker from XRPL's performance improvement process.

Hi @JoelKatz, at this point, could you clearly explain what the T-shirt you're wearing means? Thank you boss. https://t.co/XmPht5fW0U