You guess it because it sits on the Bitcoin Blockchain. 
A truly decentralized system without a crowdfunder has various advantages:
- Avoids issues with regulatory uncertainty and legal liability because there is no direct profit model, nor a central authority.
- Incentivises developers and users equally.
- Funds are never in the control of any 3rd party.
- Full transparency
- Zero pre-mine
Is XCP an alt-coin or competitor to Bitcoin?
No. XCP cannot exist without Bitcoin, as Counterparty extends the basic features of Bitcoin with proof-of-publication, oracle betting, decentralized exchange, automatic escrow, order matching, and smart contracts.
Can more XCP be created?
No. The supply of XCP is fixed, and decreasing because of fees being burned.
What is XCP used for?
XCP is the fuel for smart contracts. When smart contracts are running, fuel is used for each execution step. Appropriately enough, this fuel is burned(destroyed). This means that the supply of XCP is continuously decreasing. However, the cost of fuel adjusts proportionally as the supply of XCP goes down so that it cannot reach 0.
XCP is always the easiest token to trade against, as it is represented across all exchanges that support Counterparty. It is also used for anti-spam fees when registering named tokens, and when making distribution payments to token holders. The betting system also uses XCP.