SKN | XRP Ledger Activity Is Concentrating Into Fewer Accounts as Trading Value Surges

Key Points:

• XRP Ledger order-book volume increased 79% year over year in Q2, even as the number of accounts initiating trades fell about 41%.
• Average trading per active account climbed to approximately 3,200 XRP per day, compared with roughly 1,070 a year earlier.
• The value held on XRPL reached approximately $4.26 billion, driven largely by tokenized assets and rapid growth in Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin.

The XRP Ledger is showing a notable shift in market structure: fewer accounts are actively trading, but the accounts that remain are moving substantially larger amounts of XRP. In the second quarter, order-book trading rose 79% year over year while daily trading accounts fell roughly 41%, suggesting that activity is becoming more concentrated even as the economic value represented on the network expands.

Fewer Traders, Larger Transactions

Order-book trading averaged 3.57 million XRP per day during Q2, compared with approximately 1,100 accounts initiating trades each day. A year earlier, more than 1,860 accounts were involved in daily order-book activity. The result was a significant increase in trading intensity, with average volume per account reaching roughly 3,200 XRP per day, compared with approximately 1,070 previously.

The data do not establish that institutions are replacing retail participants. An individual can operate multiple accounts, while professional trading firms can also distribute activity across numerous accounts. What the figures do demonstrate is that a smaller population of active accounts is generating a larger share of the ledger’s order-book activity.

At the same time, the number of assets traded against XRP declined 18% to approximately 319 per day, from 480 a year earlier. That was the lowest level recorded across the six quarters covered by the report, indicating that the increase in volume was accompanied by a narrower trading universe.

XRPL’s DEX Is Becoming More Order-Book Driven

The shift is also visible in decentralized trading. The XRP Ledger’s order book represented approximately 81% of DEX activity in Q2, compared with 54% a year earlier. Total DEX volume averaged 4.42 million XRP per day, about 20% higher than the previous year, although it remained 16% below the first quarter of 2026.

This distinction matters because order-book liquidity can support more sophisticated trading strategies than a market dominated by simple swaps. Greater concentration in the order book may indicate that the ledger is increasingly being used for larger and more deliberate transactions, although the available data do not reveal the identity or institutional status of those traders.

Network Value Is Expanding Despite Lower User Activity

The strongest counterpoint to declining account activity is the growth in assets represented on XRPL. Tokenized assets averaged approximately $3.72 billion during Q2, more than double the first quarter and more than 30 times their level a year earlier. Adding average RLUSD balances of $539 million brought the network’s value held to approximately $4.26 billion, compared with just $99 million six quarters earlier.

RLUSD was a major contributor. Average supply on the XRP Ledger rose from $73 million to $539 million year over year, an increase of more than 600%, while the ledger’s share of total RLUSD circulation increased from 20% to 34%. This indicates that stablecoin activity and tokenized assets are becoming increasingly important to the network’s economic footprint.

Institutional Infrastructure Could Define the Next Phase

The changes are occurring alongside infrastructure designed to accommodate larger financial participants. A tokenized U.S. Treasury fund completed an asset-leg settlement on XRPL in under five seconds in May, while permissioned domains and multi-purpose tokens were upgraded during the quarter. U.S. spot XRP ETFs also recorded $273 million of inflows during Q2, providing institutional exposure without requiring direct token custody.

For investors, the key question is whether the concentration of trading activity represents an early stage of institutionalization or simply a temporary reduction in retail participation. With broader on-chain exchange volume down 46% year over year, XRPL’s combination of higher trading intensity, expanding tokenized assets and rapid RLUSD growth stands out. The next quarters will show whether those trends translate into broader user growth and deeper liquidity, or whether the ledger’s activity remains concentrated among a relatively small group of participants.