While the XRP Ledger blockchain is seeing a significant increase in activity, XRP continues to post largely negative performance over the past year. Could the $4 billion invested by Ripple since 2023 in strategic company acquisitions be having no effect?
The XRP Ledger blockchain is seeing increased activity
It now seems undeniable that Ripple was right with its crypto project aimed at institutional players in traditional finance, even though it launched it nearly a decade before this adoption actually took hold, with a sharp acceleration in recent years.
This favorable environment has sparked a frenzy of strategic acquisitions since 2023, spanning sectors such as asset custody, brokerage, payments, and treasury management, with a total estimated at over $4 billion.
At the same time, activity on its XRP Ledger (XRPL) has seen a significant increase, with a recent record of 2.7 million daily payments and 27,000 active liquidity pools (AMMs), according to data from the XRPScan website.
The reason? Primarily transactions involving its native stablecoin RLUSD and the use of XRP as a gateway for its tokenized asset (RWA) market, currently estimated at $460 million—a 9,000% increase since early 2025—which represents a drop in the bucket (less than 2%) in the $27 billion tokenization market.
The tokenized asset (RWA) market on the XRP Ledger reaches $460 million
At the same time, the XRPL blockchain’s footprint within decentralized finance remains negligible, with a total value locked (TVL) of just over $50 million, according to data from the DefiLlama website, even as the market capitalization of the XRP token reaches $90 billion.
Why isn’t XRP benefiting from this?
A situation that could—relatively speaking—bring to mind the paradox currently affecting the adoption of the Ethereum blockchain, with institutional activity surging while Ether (ETH) simultaneously posts disappointing performance.
Indeed, XRP is currently down 60% from its all-time high in July 2025, which was around $3.65. This calls into question the previously established pattern, which implies a mathematical rise in a blockchain token’s value as its activity increases.
XRP is down 60% from its last peak
This snapshot reveals that the XRP token’s market capitalization is largely driven by speculation and expectations surrounding its U.S. spot ETFs, without any real on-chain engagement from its holders—unlike Ethereum or Solana, which represent $59 billion and $7 billion in TVL, respectively.
Should we interpret this snapshot as a loss of interest in XRP in favor of the RLUSD stablecoin, which is now capable of supporting the activity of the XRP Ledger blockchain and the adoption of its tokenized asset market by institutional players? It’s a question worth asking…
