XRP Ledger Activity Climbs in Q1, Despite Price Dip: Messari

XRP Ledger Activity Soars in Q1 Despite XRP Price Slump: Messari

XRP experienced a challenging start to 2026 in terms of price performance, but the underlying XRP Ledger demonstrated significant growth, according to the latest State of XRP report from Messari.

The analytics firm highlighted a stark contrast between the weaker market performance and the strong network fundamentals, with increased adoption of stablecoins, real-world asset tokenization, and transaction activity during the quarter.

Market Performance and Ranking

During the first quarter, XRP generally held its position as the fourth-largest non-stablecoin cryptocurrency by total market capitalization, following only Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Binance Coin.

However, the token was not immune to the broader market downturn. Its market capitalization decreased by 26% quarter-over-quarter to approximately $82 billion, while its price fell by 27% to $1.34 at the time of the report.

Trading Activity and Institutional Exposure

Messari’s report also indicated a slowdown in trading activity during the period. Average daily spot volume declined by 32%, and perpetual futures volume decreased by 28.6%. Despite this, institutional exposure continued to grow, as previously reported by CryptoPotato. The quarter concluded with ETFs holding approximately 775.4 million XRP, representing roughly 1.26% of the asset’s circulating supply.

Network Activity and Adoption

While XRP’s price struggled, activity on the XRPL moved in the opposite direction, suggesting strong fundamental support. Messari noted that average daily transactions increased by 35% quarter-over-quarter, rising from 1.83 million to 2.48 million.

The network also saw growing adoption of stablecoins and tokenized assets.

Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin expanded to a market capitalization of $340.3 million on the XRPL by the end of the quarter, a 45% increase from the previous quarter. Simultaneously, the XRPL’s real-world market capitalization surged by 124% quarter-over-quarter, reaching an all-time high of $2.25 billion.

Infrastructure Developments

Messari also reported the development of new infrastructure in institutional-oriented decentralized finance. During the quarter, permissioned domains, permissioned DEX, and token escrow were launched. Native lending protocols and asset vaults are still under consideration.

Overall, these developments suggest that the XRPL’s institutional finance narratives continued to strengthen, despite the weakening price performance of XRP.