XRP, or Ripples, is indeed a coin, but it is the native coin of the XRP ledger, not the Ripple itself, which is actually: A network.
The Ripple network, or RippleNet for short, is an open-source protocol developed and published in 2012 by Chris Larsen, Ryan Fugger, and Jeb McCaleb.
Their purpose in creating RippleNet was not to introduce another cryptocoin to the market – a means of payment between individuals, mostly – but to construct a payment network for use between financial institutions such as banks.
This makes it different from other cryptos.