XRP dropped 27% in the first eight months of 2026, yet the XRP Ledger's transaction volume and stablecoin activity grew over the same stretch. Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin migrated heavily onto XRPL, and the network's validator count and tokenization push both expanded even as the token's price fell.
XRP fell 27% from the start of 2026 through Sept. 1, but XRPL's average daily transactions climbed 21% to 2.4 million between January and July. The gap between the token's price and the network's underlying activity widened through the first half of the year.
XRP Price Falls as Trading Volume Drops
XRP ended July at $1.06, down 42.7% from the end of 2025, according to Token Relation's H1 report on Ripple and XRP. Daily trading volume also fell 64% to $2.38 billion as the broader crypto market retreated from the ETF-driven optimism seen late last year. Still, the network's validator count rose from 119 to 141 during the same period.
RLUSD Migrates Rapidly to XRP Ledger
Ripple's dollar-backed stablecoin drove the biggest shift. RLUSD's total market capitalization rose 23.4% to $1.58 billion by the end of July, and its distribution moved decisively toward XRPL.
About $907.2 million of RLUSD was issued on XRP Ledger by July, equal to 58.9% of total supply, up from just 18.4% at the start of the year. Meanwhile, RLUSD supply on Ethereum declined 39.4% to $632.2 million.
That migration pushed XRPL's overall stablecoin market to a record $1.02 billion on July 13 before it ended the month at $798.4 million, still up 173.9% from December. RLUSD also gained integrations with LMAX Group and Convera, alongside listings on Binance, OKX and major South Korean crypto exchanges.
Ripple Expands Institutional Reach
Ripple used the downturn to build beyond XRP trading. The company secured additional European regulatory approvals, opened a regional headquarters in Dubai, and pursued an Australian Financial Services license through its proposed acquisition of BC Payments Australia. Ripple Prime also added institutional access to Hyperliquid, Coinbase Derivatives and EDX Markets, and it secured a $200 million financing facility from Neuberger Specialty Finance to expand lending capacity.
Tokenization has become a bigger focus too. XRPL now supports hundreds of real-world asset tokens spanning U.S. Treasuries, corporate credit, private equity and real estate, with Ondo and Guggenheim among the institutions represented.
For XRP holders, that growth appears to be feeding into a price recovery: the token now trades above $1.3, up about 32% from its mid-August low of $1.
Source: Bitcoin News
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