XRP transaction activity on the XRP Ledger climbed roughly 65% over the past year, rising from about 43 million to 71 million transactions, according to data shared by Evernorth, a digital-asset treasury focused on XRP. Evernorth argues this growth is more than speculative noise: it reflects steady, programmatic settlement by regulated institutions and businesses rather than short-lived trading spikes.
Who is driving the increase
Evernorth’s analysis attributes the jump to a diverse set of institutional actors. Major regulated exchanges such as Bitstamp show up alongside stablecoin flows tied to RLUSD (Ripple’s U.S. dollar stablecoin), regional players like Brazil’s Braza Bank, and platforms including Justoken and VERT. That mix — exchanges, stablecoin issuers, DeFi protocols and a Latin American bank — suggests demand is distributed across use cases instead of concentrated in one speculative cohort.
Protocol upgrades enabling institutional use
Evernorth highlights several protocol-level upgrades deployed across the last year that aim to meet regulated capital’s compliance and settlement needs. Key changes include:
– XLS-33 Multi-Purpose Tokens (activated October 2025), which allow compliance rules to be embedded in tokens.
– Permissioned Domains (launched February 2026), enabling banks to operate in closed on-chain environments where participating wallets are KYC’d and credentialed.
– Token Escrow functionality, which delivers on-chain delivery-versus-payment (DvP) settlement used in traditional securities markets.
– A Permissioned DEX that acts like an on-chain regulated block for matching/settlement.
– A native zero-knowledge proof verifier (developed by Boundless and XRPL Commons and currently on testnet) that provides programmable privacy so institutions can settle large trades without broadcasting sensitive details.
Compounding institutional access
These protocol changes have coincided with growing institutional infrastructure and product launches. Notable developments cited by Evernorth include:
– CME Group’s XRP futures (launched May 2025), which crossed $1 billion in open interest within three months — a rapid adoption pace for a CME crypto contract.
– Guggenheim issuing tokenized commercial paper on XRPL in June 2025, backed by U.S. Treasuries and generating over $280 million in volume.
– Société Générale choosing XRPL as one of three public chains to host an EU-regulated euro stablecoin that went live in February 2026.
– Five U.S. spot XRP ETFs launched between November and December 2025, reaching more than $1 billion in inflows by mid-December.
What’s next
Evernorth points to two additional protocol primitives under development — a native lending protocol and “Smart Escrows” that pair zero-knowledge proofs with conditional settlement — which it says could complete a broader financial stack on XRPL covering treasury management, prime brokerage and programmatic credit.
Why this matters for buyers
The combination of steady on-chain transaction growth and ongoing institutional tooling suggests a structural demand signal rather than episodic speculation. When exchanges, stablecoin issuers and regulated banks settle on the same ledger, that activity reflects operational utility that can underpin longer-term adoption and, potentially, price support. Evernorth frames the 65% increase as part of a broader institutional buildout quietly unfolding beneath market price charts.
Price context
At the time of the report, XRP was trading around $1.40 and consolidating above key support levels while the institutional ecosystem on XRPL continues to expand.
Bottom line
The recent surge in transactions — and the compliance, privacy and settlement features being added to XRPL — point to growing institutional use that proponents argue could change the narrative from speculative trading to real-world settlement and financial infrastructure.